And today, May 5, 2011, CBS is reporting on the importance of prayer in medical ways and health matters. Read the piece below or at http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20060061-10391704.html. May today the day your family is restored through prayer.
National Day of Prayer spotlights prayer's healing power
Posted by David W Freeman
(CBS) Religious people take on faith the healing power of prayer - on today's National Day of Prayer as on other days. And even hard-nosed doctors who have studied spirituality say science supports the belief that prayer brings health benefits - though not necessarily because God is listening.
Several studies have linked prayer to better health. A 2001 study showed that reciting rosary prayers or yoga mantras can enhance heart rhythm and breathing, and a 2011 study published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine linked prayer to pain relief.
Research has also shown that the death rate of people who attend church regularly is about 30 percent lower than that among people who spend their Sundays doing something else, according to Dr. Lynda Powell, chairman of preventive medicine at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
What explains churchgoers' lower death rate? Is it because God smiles on the faithful?
Science has nothing to say on that question. But Dr. Powell, a leading researcher on spirituality and health, has identified health-promoting outlooks and behaviors that are common to all major religions.
"We studied Catholics, Prostestants, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindus," Dr. Powell told CBS News. "We were asking what it is about their daily life that might serve to protect them. And all these people tended to pray or chant a mantra and take pauses throughout the day."
Those brief pauses - which some of the people she studied took up to 30 times each day - seem to lower blood levels of the stress hormones cortisol and noradrenalin, which have a corrosive effect on the body.
"Envision the body like a balloon," Dr. Powell explained. "The balloon is deflated in the morning. But as people go through they day, stress causes the release of these stress hormones, and that causes the balloon to inflate. But when people pause and take a deep breath, it deflates the balloon a bit."
There are also health benefits to other spiritual practices, including a willingness to forgive oneself and others.
Dr. Powell said she isn't a religious person. But when it comes to the benefits of prayer and forgiveness, she's a big believer.
Family is God's institution and place of worship. Satan attacks family in so many ways. We really need a special prayer for the families.
ReplyDeleteThis article sends a valuable but incomplete message because it makes it seem like you can take a scriptural command and do something similar to it and accomplish the same end, when really that's a false message. On one hand it seems like it is promoting prayer. Yet, taking a closer look, it does not draw any distinction between prayer, "taking a deep breath," or saying a mantra. While I am excited by the idea that prayer is being promoted and recognized as a good thing, this article is another example of a secular writer discovering a positive effect of something that is commanded in scripture but maintains resistance to give credit to the truth in the command itself. For example, the Bible commands us to abstain from sexual impurity, and sexual intercourse is created for a marital relationship between a man and woman. In other words, if two partners abstain from sex and have a monogamous relationship, they will engage in the behavior 100% risk free and in a Godly manner. However, if you're only "kind of" sexually pure, and "kind of abstain" from sex, you run nearly the same risk as if you were having a sexual relationship. As such, while it is a great point to bring to light that prayer has health benefits, I hope readers see that it is more than a coincidence that prayer and forgiveness are beneficial and commanded in scripture and that simply going to church or praying, taking deep breaths or saying mantras 30 times a day are only practices that point to the true source of health and life-- a relationship with Jesus Christ.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great article - personally, I've noticed how much better my day goes when I give my time to God first thing in the morning, and last thing before I go to bed at night. While my day is seldom ever perfect even when I have my quiet time, I've found that on the days that I do, I am much better equipped to handle those days with grace and tenacity. I can understand where "RachelB" is coming from in her reasoning, however, I'll say this - there are many people out there who have not had the opportunity to see God's grace; instead of ridiculing their chants/mantras/"prayers" shouldn't we rather encourage them to start somewhere, even if it is with a "mantra" that is unrelated to Christ? The very practice of prayer is spiritual in itself, and I believe that God can use any opportunity to bring an unbeliever to himself.
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