Add Years To Your Life Through Meditation
Add Years To Your Life Through Meditation
The National Institute for Healthcare until a few years ago flat out refused to even review a study that had the word prayer in it. According to WebMD the NIH is now funding a study through their Frontier Medicine Initiative.
The article, based on recent neurological studies, suggests that there is a definite link between prayer and health.
The research
It is interesting to note that increased funding for these studies has almost doubled over the past 10 years.
Dr. Harold Koenig, author of the Handbook of Religion and Health and the Associate Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at Duke University documents nearly 1200 studies.
His findings show that people, who are prone to this practice, are stressed out less, get sick less, drink less, and are less angry.
He focused specifically on meditation to understand how the mind affects the body. It is believed that radiating loving-kindness to other human beings, nurtured a benefit to those it was directed to as well as the practitioner. That, this sharing practice has by all accounts produced amazing changes both in perception, depth, and health in the participants and has shown documented physical changes on MRI brain scans.
A study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania found, by repeating certain sounds and words called mantras (the Om) that the practitioner creates within himself, vibrations leading up to a change in consciousness, a “quietude” disconnecting the mind-body. When this happens, our limbic system which regulates relaxation becomes activated. This moves deeper still controlling our nervous system, heart rate, blood pressure, metabolism, and so on. Leading to being more relaxed, the body is now more evenly regulated.
While it may not be on bended knees or crossed legs, the expression of thankfulness, gratitude, a wish to be more gentle, and less angry, and the addition of provisions for loved ones have all pointed to hope or a target for that direction.