Most of the world’s wisdom traditions have many forms of centering spiritual practice.

Devout Muslims observe prayer five times a day as a chance to stop and find peace in the worship of Allah.

Catholics and other ritualistic denominations of Christianity keep prayer forms like the Daily Office, the Rosary or even the Jesuit Spiritual Exercises.

Buddhists practice various forms of meditative chant or meditation.

Even for the non-religious among us, prayer or meditation can actually be good for you. Anyone who practices yoga or martial arts can attest to that: a contemplative practice steadies the mind, calms the spirit and sooths a fluttering heartbeat or tense muscle.

Rev. Dianne Lowe, deacon at St. James Episcopal in Pullman and chaplain at Pullman Regional Hospital has found prayer to have a similar effect on patients as music and meditation.

“Contemplative prayer practice has helped numerous patients with enhanced pain control,” Lowe said. “This also is seen with hospital patients who listen to music and meditate while doing so.”

The beauty of prayer and prayer-like exercises is their centering effect: it is an opportunity to commune with a wider sense of being and place in the cosmos while also allowing for internal reflection.

Andrew Newberg, director of research at the Jefferson Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine, conducted brain scans of Tibetan monks and Franciscan nuns during meditation and prayer to track blood flow in the brain.

His study found that the nuns and monks had increased levels of dopamine present in the brain during prayer.

According to News Medical, dopamine is a hormone associated with mood, attention and pleasure-seeking behavior, often being released during pleasurable situations like eating, listening to music or having sex.

A similar study by Kenneth Pargament of Bowling Green State University involved a group of migraine sufferers practicing 20 minutes per day of meditation.

He found that repeating a spiritual affirmation resulted in fewer headaches and more tolerance of migraine pain.

Now, someone who does not subscribe to any one wisdom tradition might balk at the idea of praying or meditation. However, these practices need not be explicitly religious.

Exercises in contemplation could be as simple as reflecting on the day, giving thanks for the good parts and pondering what could be improved upon the next day. As Buddhism proves, meditative practice need not be oriented toward any one deity.

From personal experience, even just finding an enjoyable activity that takes mindful focus can produce the same effects as deliberate prayer. It sooths the soul, settles blood pressure and makes many of one’s worldly cares fall away.

So when you are considering a healthier lifestyle, give meditative practice a second thought. It takes one outside the self and improves one’s connection to the world – and, if anything else, it gives the busy college student a healthy way to procrastinate.

Tyler Laferriere is a graduate student pursuing his master’s in economics from Phoenix, Arizona. He can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the staff of the Daily Evergreen or those of the Office of Student Media.