Prayer in Combating Stress - Research Paper Example

? Prayer I.D. of the Prayer Introduction Stress has become almost an ominous problem in today’s world. Even youths are complaining of stress. Psychiatric interventions have revealed that fast urban lifestyle, increased competition, wrong dietary habits, etc. are the primary factors behind increased stress. So there is a genuine need to comprehend stress. By understanding stress better, one can prepare well to combat the malady. Spirituality has often been looked as a viable means of mitigating stress. When stress originates from negative thoughts and pessimistic view of life, spirituality and faith can be immensely helpful to regain confidence. Experts like Cysarz and Bissing (2005) have said that meditation can be very helpful to combat stress. From this perspective, prayer (which is one of the most powerful forms of meditation) can be extremely useful and beneficial as a stress reducing technique. In this paper, the main focus is on the fact that spirituality can help in combating stress. Prayer is one of the most important meditative activities in the sphere of spirituality across different religious groups and individual persons. So the importance of prayer has become a prime area of psychological discourse. Several scholars have inferred that offering prayers can caste a positive effect on human mental health as a whole. Spirituality and Stress First of all, it must be reflected on that what is spirituality? Spirituality involves faith, which is again related to religion. Majority of religious persons, who are generally regarded as God fearing and pious, do have at least some degree of spirituality in their lives. Yet, religion and spirituality cannot be regarded as strictly overlapping topics. In fact, experts like Koenig (2009) prefer to mention religion and spirituality separately. As a matter of fact, there are many religions in this world including Buddhism that do not put particular emphasis on theism (Dawkins 2006; Cysarz and Bissing 2005). In this context, meditation can be considered as very important. Apart from the secular concepts regarding benefits of meditation, spirituality can also be understood as a broader concept that can be used to develop implications regarding human behavior and understanding stress. So the complex dimensions of religion must be explored on the basis of both spiritual and secular aspects of meditation. However, prayer remains a subject of debate because it can rarely be practiced as a secular form of meditation. Most persons who do prayers think of a supreme force while offering their prayers; and this supreme force has been widely acknowledged as God among spiritual persons (Koenig 2009). Moreover, this kind of behavior in the first go delegates one’s concerns and worries to some other intelligent being. No matter whether God exists or not, spirituality is a way to find support and convey one’s thought to somebody else who is regarded as a supreme force in an abstract form. In the wake of such a behavior the immediate outcome is that stress is relieved at least temporarily (Koenig 2009). For some experts like Dawkins (2006), this kind of behavior is based on blatant absurdity of thoughts and unscientific approach in commonsense. However, advanced research in this field has proved that prayers can do wonders to the health and mind of the person who is performing them. This involves basic psychiatry. According to Bremmer, Koole, and Bushman (2011), prayers can reduce the feelings of aggressiveness and anger. Although this can be cited as an inherent weakness of human understanding and perception, delegating one’s concerns and worrying to some external agency can be beneficial in reducing stress. Even if that external agency be imaginary and envisaged as agnostic ideals, spirituality helps mediators to at least organize their thoughts and attain peace of mind for the time being (Sloan and Ramakrishnan 2006). Importance of Prayer Prayer can be regarded as a more specific form of meditation that is essentially capable of increasing one’s level of concentration and tranquility of mind. The concept is not only supported but enriched as well by the experts like Wachholtz and Pargament (2004). According to the authors, spirituality can be very productive as an ingredient of meditation. Not only that but secular meditation can also be looked upon as having elements of spiritual meditation. It is a scientific truth in the realm of psychology that most human beings have spiritual demands and in a secular environment too spiritual elements of meditation can manifest subconsciously (Koenig 2009; Wachholtz and Pargament 2004). So meditation provides relaxation largely in the form of a spiritual activity; this in turn helps the scientific community to understand prayers better (Bremmer, Koole, and Bushman 2011). According to Cysarz and Bissing (2005), even when prayers are devoid of direct influence of theology and God fearing beliefs, it can synchronize the cardiac and respiratory functions of a human being. This is good for general health which can improve heart conditions as a whole apart from increasing concentration levels. Prayers can be including in this form of meditation in both specific and general sense, since prayers can bring reductions in anxiety levels and develop self esteem (Bonadonna 2003). Prayer as a stress reducing technique Many people think that prayers can do wonders. Many self proclaimed healers and their followers often take such philosophies to the extent of farce. In particular, things can be especially annoying when medical science is set aside. On the basis of what can be called inexact science, prayers might be used as a means of healing complicated diseases like cancer, AIDS, etc. This kind of behavior has no viable scientific explanation and can only be explained on the basis of the complex dynamics of group psychology, excessive religiousness, and superstition. (Dawkins 2006) However, research done by Dusek et al (2003) proves that prayers aimed at healing purposes can play a positive role analogous to the significance of placebos in treating complicated physical illness. In other words, when faith is professed in communities in an environment where group psychology is significant, prayers can reduce apparent stress. Even though stress reduction cannot cure a disease like cancer, it can indeed provide a patient with self confidence that is built on the basis of critical “consensus” built during group prayers before religious leaders (Dusek et al 2003, p. A44). According to Bremmer, Koole, and Bushman (2011, pp. 370-371): “To investigate the role of religiosity on prosocial behavior, it is desirable to focus on an intrinsically religious practice that actively involves individuals and that lends itself to experimental manipulation. One such practice is prayer. Prayer is common to virtually all religions, and represents one of the most central and universally enacted forms of religious behavior. Indeed, prayer has been said to form the ''living heart'' of religion.” This implies that prayers can, in many cases, determine an individual’s personality development and a community’s social evolution. Even in the case an individual suffers from some non-psychiatric affliction, he/she may be relieved of physical pains while offering prayers. This is helpful in alleviating ailments and providing palliative treatment of symptoms even when no cure of the disease is possible. In the case of students and youths, prayer can be a very intense form of meditation which can help them to overcome many difficulties mainly caused by aggressiveness, anxiety, nervousness, etc. In fact, studies done by Barnes et al (2004, p. p. 909) show that prayers can help as a form of meditation that can lead to regularization of “ambulatory blood pressure” among young adults. From a strict psychosomatic perspective on prayers as a form of meditation, it should be noted that most religions prescribe definite physical postures for offering prayers. These postures, as obtained from meditation forms and practices, provide physical configuration that can relax one’s muscles and tissues. Moreover, quietness and serenity provide tranquilization effects on mind. Combination of these can lead to the development of a viable technique, which can mitigate the psychosomatic side effects of both physical and mental stress. (Bremmer, Koole, and Bushman 2011; Cysarz and Bissing 2005) Beneficial aspects of prayer Prayer is generally regarded as a very important religious practice. Almost in all religions, group prayers are organized. These are largely social coherence inducting processes. In the light of spiritual aspects of the activity, an individual can find broader relationships with his/her fellow people during and after prayers. According to Bremmer, Koole, and Bushman (2011), a prayer is thus generally a prosocial activity which is practiced collectively in most cases. And even if not so, an individual can find peace, solace, and personal space for thinking and relaxing if he/she offers his/her prayers alone. Prayer being a kind of meditation can culminate at considerable health benefits, the most prominent of them being the balancing of psychosocial behaviors and societal wellbeing. Further exploring the psychosocial aspects of prayer sessions, prayers can help to bring peace and conflict resolution by raising consensus (Dusek et al 2003) Psychosomatic benefits have also been proved in the light of scientific studies. Sessions of meditation in the form of prayers can help to synchronize hear rates by relaxing mind. Prayer sessions act as at least temporary diversion and can give an ailing patient temporary relief in the form of a peaceful but recreational diversion. (Wachholtz and Pargament 2004) Furthermore, in the realm of mental health improvement and overall wellbeing, prayers can help to reduce anxiety, negative thoughts (Bonadonna 2003); aggressiveness and anger (Bremmer, Koole, and Bushman 2011), etc. In the case of patients, these are obviously positive factors with respect to their medical conditions. For example, mental peace obtained by means of meditation through prayers can help a patient of hypertension immensely. And as far as the general populace is concerned, prayers can prove to be healthy community or individual practice increasing levels of concentration, tolerance, and societal coherence. Conclusion Although time and again there have been claims as such as spiritual healing, prayer cannot be regarded as a viable option for a person with some serious health problems. Yet, spiritual propagandists have proved to be problematic and the science behind spirituality remains shrouded as ever (Dawkins 2006). More research on “secular meditation” (Wachholtz and Pargament 2004) can be very helpful in this regard. However, prayer is such a kind of meditative activity which is impossible without belief in some heavenly and powerful force. The risk regarding prayer is that it can be readily correlated with superstitions. On the other hand, several scientists have said that meditation and particularly prayer can provide mental relief to a person. So from a strictly scientific point of view, prayers can be regarded as a kind of spiritual placebo and much more. The philosophy behind offering prayers is all about psychosocial wellbeing. In furtherance with this fact, it can also be stated that prayers help in synchronizing blood pressure and rate of heart beats. Prayers can help in relaxation and provide fulfillment for human spiritual demands. References Barnes V.A., Davis H.C., Murzynowski J.B., and Treiber F.A. (2004). Impact of meditation on resting and ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate in youth. Psychosomatic Medicine. 66, 909–14 Bonadonna R. (2003). Meditation's impact on chronic illness. Holistic Nursing Practice. 17, 309–19 Cysarz D. and Bissing A. (2005). Cardiorespiratory synchronization during Zen meditation. Eur Journal of Applied Physiology. 95, 88–95.  Dawkins R. (2006). The God Delusion. London: Bantam Books Dusek J.A., Astin J.A., Hibberd P.L., and Krucoff M.W. (2003). Healing prayer outcomes studies: Consensus recommendations. Alternative Therapeutic Health Medicine. 9, A44–53. Koenig H.G. (2009). Research on religion, spirituality, and mental health: A review. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 54, 283–91 Sloan R.P. and Ramakrishnan R. (2006). Science, medicine, and intercessory prayer. Perspectives on Biology and Medicine. 49, 504–14 Wachholtz A.B. and Pargament K.I. (2005). Is spirituality a critical ingredient of meditation? Comparing the effects of spiritual meditation, secular meditation, and relaxation on spiritual, psychological, cardiac, and pain outcomes. Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 28, 369–84 Read More