There are many complimentary healing modalities, such as homeopathy, imagery, journaling, massage, M technique, meditation, reiki, relaxation, life review, sense therapies, soothing music, spiritual reflection, therapeutic touch and others.
Prayer is one of the modalities and it has personal meaning for every individual. This meaning comes from religious background of the patient or their spiritual practice. Thus, for some people being a prayer means listening to God, talking to Him or to some other higher power, while for others being a prayer means telling some sacred words.
A prayer believes that there is some higher power which can influence the person’s life. There is not specified way to pray - people can speak aloud, pray silently, be prayer of the mind, their hearts and united with the God. These and other issues divide all the prayers into several groups:
Distant healing prayer – these people pray to God to have someone healed; this person is not near to the prayer, but they are at the distance;
Intercessory prayer – a person who prays for some other individual;
Petition prayer – an individual who is asking God to give them something;
Contemplative prayer – this person is opened to become united with God or something sacred;
Centering prayer – such prayer centers their attention on some phrase or word for a lot of time (at least 20 minutes); they are silent and believe that the silence opens them to the sacred.
Being a prayer is an important aspect for every person who wants their health to be improved. It is indicated by various surveys that nearly all (90 per cent) of the patients who have some serious illness become prayers in order to become healed from the disease.
It is also necessary to pay attention to the fact that prayer modality is the only widely practiced healing modality among numerous forms of complementary medicine. Health care providers offer the following explanations to understand how prayer improves health:
Praying leads to relaxation and relaxation response which lowers blood pressure and other health care related factors which are caused by stress;
Secondary control – the control for health is given to something or someone greater than the prayers themselves and this reduces their stress;
Prayers enhance personal hopes, expectations and thus impact their health positively;
Praying brings loving and spiritual presence since, as well as alignment with a greater power or God;
Positive feelings are brought by praying as prayers express compassion, gratitude, hope, forgiveness, and all of them lead to healing;
Connection of mind, body, and spirit.
Since impact of the modality is so powerful, there are sanctioned roles for spiritual advisers in every health care setting. There are various positions to meet needs of the prayers, such as chaplain, spiritual adviser, ordained clergy, priest, rabbi, minister, and spiritual director. Each one of them has their own dues which are aimed at promotion of health care delivery quality to the patients.
Thus, it is possible to conclude, that prayer is one of the most important and effective modalities in health care delivery. Since its importance has been …