How praying for others can improve your health
Scientific litsketch on boosting mental health
What does the science tell us about the benefits of praying for others?
Research shows that meditating or praying to cultivate positive emotions like happiness, gratitude, love and hope increases social connections with the people you interact with, and ultimately improve your physical health (Kok et al., 2013).
In an experiment, people were divided into two groups. Group One was invited to a workshop that taught them to meditate or pray that they may be happy, grateful and loving and that the people they like or dislike may be happy, grateful and loving. Group Two was placed in a waiting list for the meditation program. Both Groups were asked to report how much time they spent meditating or praying, what emotions they were feeling at the end of each day for 9 weeks. Both Groups were also tested for their vagal tone or how stable or variable their heart rate is at rest before and after the experiment in order to measure how healthy they were before and after the experiment.
The results showed that Group One that spent more time meditating or praying to cultivate positive emotions experienced greater social connections with the people they interacted with, and improvement in their vagal tone at the end of the experiment compared to Group Two.
Start praying for others. The more we nurture positive emotions through meditation or spiritual prayer, the more we are able to channel those positive emotions in our interactions with others, which significantly improves our physical health. Remember to rejoice always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances to experience your body and mind becoming stronger.
Kok, B. E., Coffey, K. A., Cohn, M. A., Catalino, L. I., Vacharkulksemsuk, T., Algoe, S. B., ... & Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). How positive emotions build physical health: Perceived positive social connections account for the upward spiral between positive emotions and vagal tone. Psychological Science, 24(7), 1123-1132.