Understanding the Benefits of Christian Prayer on Mental Health
The World Health Organization estimates that one in four people will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives. At the same time, there is an increasing interest in understanding spiritual practices as tools to promote or enhance well-being, including mental health. One of the most studied practices with that goal is Christian prayer, which has been central to the pursuit of the Christian spiritual life for more than a millennium. Christian prayer, in a wide variety of contexts, can be broadly understood as communication with God that brings the one who prays into the healing, guiding, and comforting presence of God.
This article seeks to describe ways in which the intersection between Christian prayer and improved mental health might be identified, explored, and understood. I expect to use a keyword-in-title strategy: “Christian prayer,” “mental health,” “benefits of prayer,” and “spiritual wellness” seem to be the most appropriate words.
In what ways do those who are Christian find themselves better able to cope with various realities of life, including stress, anxiety, and episodic or ongoing depression because they pray? The potential among those who practice forms of Christian prayer to experience peace and to develop resilience—qualities essential to life in the 21st century life, including overall good mental health, amid the demands of life—is worth exploring.
The Connection Between Faith and Mental Health
Religious beliefs color our mental health just like every other part of life. They often help us feel a sense of overall purpose, a reason for the painful things we experience, and the community and encouragement we need to keep going.
But every story is different. While faith helps many persevere, for others, it makes perseverance all the more difficult, adding extra levels of fear, guilt, or confusion into their already overwhelmed hearts.
The Psychological Benefits of Christian Prayer
Prayer can be a form of mindfulness meditation to increase focused attention and regulate emotions. Similar to how mindfulness meditation concentrates one’s mind on the present moment, prayer often involves concentrating the mind on particular thoughts, words, or intentions. Therefore, prayer can sometimes help a person reduce anxious thoughts. Like mindfulness practices, prayer can “quiet the mind,” decrease stress, and foster a sense of inner peace.
Some of the psychological mechanisms that lend themselves to the above-listed benefits include activation of the parasympathetic nervous system to physiologically calm oneself. Further, the act of prayer often helps a person feel a sense of increased connectedness and support (i.e., socio-emotionally and/or with the divine, for theists), which can improve mental health.
Christian Prayer as a Form of Religious Coping
Religious coping refers to the way we use our spiritual beliefs and practices to get us through the actions of stress and anxiety. And for many people, that’s a big-league job. It’s frankly tough to imagine how you would function in the absence of that job. Religious coping is the bread-and-butter work of Christian prayer, the work that gives life its ultimate coherence, the work of connection. Prayer, for most of us, is how we directly address this job of connection.
We pray in a few different ways to do this job, but a few basic forms of prayer come to mind: We pray prayers of supplication. We pray prayers of thanksgiving. We say prayers of intercession. Sometimes you might pray for the special ability (for the day against you) to face down especially nerve-wracking circumstances. Basic to Christian tradition is the use of daily morning and evening prayers. Sometimes you just learn to get through the day—another awful day—with prayer as the communication strategy to close out the positive game you are trying to play, as connection, as the communication strategy to avoid at all costs the negative game you desperately don’t want to play, as a disconnection. I can’t imagine how you might not pray every day. How else do you have a prayer to make your religious coping job—by now pretty well aggregated through learning—a big success?
Devotional Practices and Spiritual Wellness
In Christianity, devotional practices—prayer, Bible study, worship—are central to one’s spiritual wellness journey.
Prayer is a means by which you have a personal conversation with God, often feeling a sense of peace and getting direction.
Bible study is a means by which you can learn more about spiritual and life topics, often learning nuggets of wisdom and getting direction for moral living.
Worship is a means by which you give thanks or awe directly to God, often generating feelings of faith (in God’s ‘greatness’) and fellowship (when worshiping with other people).
But incorporating these practices into one’s daily life can contribute to wellness far beyond just the spiritual dimension.
Prayer (like other forms of meditation) can help to reduce stress—and is thus a path toward improved mental wellness.
Bible study can help to increase one’s ability to see the world and one’s interpersonal relationships from a more considerate perspective—and is thus a path toward improved emotional wellness.
Worship can help to make one feel more a part of both (a) a church community and (b) the community at large—and is thus a path toward [even] greater occupational wellness.