Health
Lean to the Spiritual for Health
If you want to maintain your health, strive for spiritual well-being, say the experts at Harvard's Mind and Body Medical Institute. Researchers there, led by spirituality and healing guru Dr. Herbert Benson, say our spiritual side can play as important a role in our general health as physical factors.
Consider stress. It occurs when we're faced with a physical or emotional threat, whether real or imagined. To reduce stress, Benson advocates practicing what he calls relaxation response.
The self-induced physical state of deep rest decreases heart rate, blood pressure and muscle tension, and if practiced regularly, can have day-long effects, Benson says.
The procedure consists of finding a comfortable place to sit, repeating a word, sound, prayer, phrase, or muscle activity such as "One," "peace," "The Lord is my shepherd" or "Shalom," disregarding everyday thoughts that come to mind, then going back to the repetition.
Consider stress. It occurs when we're faced with a physical or emotional threat, whether real or imagined. To reduce stress, Benson advocates practicing what he calls relaxation response.
The self-induced physical state of deep rest decreases heart rate, blood pressure and muscle tension, and if practiced regularly, can have day-long effects, Benson says.
The procedure consists of finding a comfortable place to sit, repeating a word, sound, prayer, phrase, or muscle activity such as "One," "peace," "The Lord is my shepherd" or "Shalom," disregarding everyday thoughts that come to mind, then going back to the repetition.
