Prayer and Faith

Posted by: Nicholas Hiep

Take sometime today to slow down life and reflect about your day and life. Taking time for yourself will help you understand what's happening and might give you a new perspective on your situation. If you are religious take a moment and pray, take a few breaths and close your eyes. This might help you calm down and refocus on what you need to do. If you want to learn more you can read this little reading at the bottom of the page.

Prayer is very close to meditation. Both of these types of coping mechanisms both have the idea of centering the mind and body. But that is where they differ is in the idea that prayer is more of a request for help from a higher power. When we are talking about praying we tend to think about people in church bowing their heads and taking a moment of silence. This is called intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is when a person will pray and ask for devine intervention with the problems that they are facing at that specific time. Prayer is way for a person to reconnect with the perceived higher power that they may have. With prayer we can see a decrease in stress levels, this could be due too many things but one idea is that praying can help with providing more optimism about their current situation. People that attend church do see some health benefits, that include having a lower risk of developing depression and not suffering from loneliness. This could be due to the fact that going to church will provide a network of people that others can rely on. Now, all religions are different and may have a different way of praying and dealing with the stressors not all religions are the same.

Faith

An optimistic point of view to help cope with stress and connect with something that is bigger than themselves.

Reference:

Seaward, B. L. (2017). Managing Stress: Principles and Strategies for Health and Well-Being (9th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.