While you read this, take a moment to pause, take a deep breath, and feel the oxygen circulating into your lungs and throughout your body. Now recall a recent moment you enjoyed with your family or close friends. Feel the warmth of their companionship; perhaps the unexpected joy of sudden laughter, maybe a hug or a caring glance. Finally, feel heart-centered gratitude for this happy memory.
Congratulations. You just prayed.
If you ever silently asked for help during a challenge, or were overwhelmed at the beauty of a sunset, those count as prayers, too. Even just saying “good bye” is from the old English blessing and prayer, “God be with ye.” All sincere, spontaneous appeals for help, expressions of gratitude or feelings of awe are, pure and simple, prayers.
Contrary to what many tend to believe, prayer doesn’t have to be religious in nature. It doesn’t have to follow a strict formula, be done in the presence of others or even, technically, be directed specifically to God. Rather, true prayer is the sincere desire of the heart – and all true prayers are answered.
A practice called “The Law of Attraction,” which gained global prominence in the movie “The Secret,” is a form of prayer. It consists of mindfully focusing on what you intend to bring into your life. Even though this concept is taught in Judeo-Christian scripture, Native American beliefs and other spiritual disciplines, it doesn’t require any religious belief to do it effectively. It just requires holding a specific intent in your consciousness, and imagining it already coming into being.
To pray is to consciously connect with a power greater than yourself, however you choose to conceptualize that power. There’s a spiritual duality to prayer, because even as you go outside of yourself to link up to God, or Spirit, or Divine Love, you are simultaneously going deeper into yourself.
The Optimum Health Institute (OHI) teaches classes in how to reach an Alpha state, where you can tap into your sub conscious, or God Consciousness, depending on your spiritual orientation. In quantum physics, this state of being is called the unified or quantum field, where everything, and everyone, are interconnected.
When you pray, you automatically link into this higher Alpha state, and influence your state of mind, which then influences your “state of body.” Your body obediently responds by releasing stress and depression, causing you to breathe more deeply, lowering your blood pressure and helping you digest and sleep in a more balanced, healthy way.
The more you consciously enter into this Alpha prayer state, with or without the religious trappings, the more you start to create new mental habits, and subsequent new behaviors. Studies have actually shown positive physical changes that help prevent mental illness in the brains of people who have prayed for a long period of time.
No matter what your spiritual orientation is, when your body, mind, and spirit are aligned, you can achieve optimum health. If you are looking for a holistic healing program, visit Optimum Health Institute in San Diego or Austin. We can help you achieve your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual goals for optimal health in 2013. Call us at (800) 993-4325 to make your reservation.
