When I was in ministerial school, one of the requirements to graduate was to intern at Silent Unity. Silent Unity is a 24-hour prayer hotline. People from all over the world call in for prayer. This has been going on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year for over 100 years. (If you’ve never called Silent Unity for a prayer, the number is 1-800-NOW-PRAY.)
Needless to say, I felt a palpable energy the first day I stepped off the elevator and entered that prayer room. After I completed my training and started praying with callers, I noticed a pattern to the prayer requests. An overwhelming percentage of the prayers fell into these general categories: healing, prosperity and relationships. Of those areas, healing rose to the top as the most frequent prayer request by far.
This came to mind this past Friday evening when Spiritual Life Center hosted a viewing of the documentary Heal. The movie focused on alternative or supplemental holistic approaches to conventional Western medicine, which can help individuals in their healing process. The documentary addressed how people who were told their diseases were either terminal or undiagnosable nevertheless healed by using these alternative methods.
One researcher in the film, Kelly A. Turner, PhD, studied hundreds of people in radical remission from what was considered incurable cancer and identified nine factors that contributed to their healing. One single practice enhanced four of those factors and arguably is one of the most critical to healing and overall well-being: meditation.
Meditation is important to the healing process because it alleviates one of the top causes of illness – stress.
Stress lowers the immune system, produces muscle tension and increases blood pressure. These stress by-products lead to many serious and life-threatening illnesses.
One type of meditation (among many) that has proven to reduce stress is mindfulness meditation. Numerous psychological studies have shown that regular meditators not only experience huge health advantages, they are happier than average and experience positive emotions that lead to longer and healthier lives.
So if you want a healing in any area, you can’t go wrong by making meditation a regular part of your life. It’s a free gift from the universe that is available to us anywhere and at any time.
Peace and Blessings,
James
P.S. If you want to learn this simple yet powerful mediation practice or just join others in a group meditation experience, my three-week class on “Mindfulness Meditation for Better Living” starts this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. You can register online here or in-person on the first night. I look forward to practicing meditation with you.
