"Praying May Be Crucial To Better Subjective Well-Being"

A 2008 British study carried out by researchers at the Universites of Leicester, Ulster and Sheffield Hallam and other institutions says: "praying may be crucial to better subjective well-being"The research is entitled "Prayer and subjective well-being: the application of a cognitive-behavioural framework" and it explored the idea that "prayer has a beneficial effect on subjective well-being".The conclusion says: "the present findings suggest that meditative prayer, frequency of prayer, and prayer experience accounts for unique variance (among other measures of prayer) with a standardised measure of subjective well-being (depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms, social dysfunction).  Therefore, the present study provides a potentially reliable and valid model that may aid practitioners to understand why praying may be crucial to better subjective well-being."The 2008 study suggested meditative prayer, frequency of prayer, and prayer experience can shape both therapeutic and adverse effects of any given drug and suggests medical practitioners obtain a better understanding of the link between patients’ beliefs and expectations and their better subjective well-being.

It also speaks of studies that suggest prayer has a beneficial effect on subjective well-being –Matlby, Lewis, Day later teamed up with others to develop these ideas. In an article published online December 2010 they observed “the idea that religion is beneficial to health is not a new one".The piece stated religion was thought to “significantly” influence a variety of health outcomes including heart disease, cancer and stroke, as well as health related behaviours including smoking, drinking and drugs use.