Eyes Down, Heart Up
The Toldos reads the advice for davening as a picture of the tzaddik who joins the simple people in order to raise them.
Chazal teach that one who prays should place his eyes below and his heart above. Rav Yaakov Yosef explains this in terms of the leader’s task. Sometimes a tzaddik must dress himself in the ways of ordinary people for Heaven’s sake, in order to join them. In the incense of the Beis HaMikdash there was a bitter ingredient, the galbanum, to show that prayer can include even the least righteous. And the Arizal teaches that a prayer rises best when it is part of the prayer of the many. So the eyes below are his attention, resting on the common people who stand beneath him, so that he can attach himself to them. The heart above is his purpose: in this joining he lifts them upward.
Source: Ketonet Pasim, Tzav:6-7
When you daven today, whether in shul or alone, let your eyes rest on the page or on the floor, and let your heart lift. Then add the names of two or three people who are struggling, a family member who is ill, a friend without work, a child who is drifting, and include them in your words. Praying as part of a community, instead of only for yourself, is one of the oldest ways to raise others. Ask Hashem to carry them up with you.