Praying through Lent

My prayer discipline has been challenging this week.  I have struggled with finding time, and I had a great deal of difficulty "connecting" with the prayer prompts I'm using.    All was not lost however.  I  did find myself praying more often, throughout the day, rather than a longer period of intentional contemplation.  I also did something I don't usually do.  I prayed for a specific-to-me physical problem to be resolved, and it was. Several years ago I had a very painful (though minor) health issue that took several doctor's visits, and several extremely painful treatments to cure.  Monday morning it appeared that the problem was recurring.  I started praying hard.  I asked God to take the problem away.  Wednesday afternoon, the problem resolved itself.  My prayer was answered.  The immense sense of gratitude is hard to express!  I find it much easier to pray for others than to pray for myself. I do pray for myself for the "big stuff"  -- clarity, wisdom, guidance, patience, etc.  but why is it so hard to ask for the "little things" - relief from a headache, a good conversation with a difficult student, a solution to a scheduling problem, etc???