Believe You’re Healthy: 9 Health Benefits of Religion
You probably know that staying healthy requires a healthy diet and exercise. But, did you know that spirituality can also keep us well?
The benefits of religion improve both our physical, mental health and social health. Regardless of what religion you choose, you should make an effort to get in touch with your spiritual side.
9 Health Benefits of Religion
Keep yourself healthy in all aspects of life by focusing on your spiritual health. Keep reading to learn the relationship between spirituality and health, and 9 benefits that come with religion.
1. A Healthier Heart
Religions tend to focus on gratitude. Giving thanks through song, prayer, and associated acts tie strongly into the core of religion.
That feeling in your heart actually manifests itself in physical ways. Clinically, it actually improves heart health.
One study focused on patients with asymptomatic heart failure. They found that gratitude helped to improve cardiac health, among other factors. So, despite what higher power you wish to thank, keep doing it!
2. Better Sleep
Choosing a church, like Calvary Baptist Church of Burbank, may help you get better nights of rest. Religion can help you get more sleep and a higher quality of rest.
One reason for this may simply be religions way of taking burdens off of you. Worries, guilt, and fear can all weigh on you and keep those wheels turning at night.
Whether you confess, repent for your sins, or pray for forgiveness, this can take a lot off of your mind. Plus, faith health tends to ease fears, because you can trust in your belief despite your circumstances. Leaving you sleeping like a baby.
3. Reduced Anxiety
Anxiety bubbles up inside of us when we stress about the future. Religion can help reduce your anxiety in numerous ways.
First, religions answer tough questions about the eternal future. This can help people cope with the fear of dying or dealing with the loss of a loved one.
Second, the religious community creates a safe space to ask for prayer about things that worry you. Doing this can bring much-needed support your way, easing the anxiety you feel about your problem.
4. Less Stress
Reduced anxiety naturally means less stress. Stress causes an entire list of health issues that religion can help you avoid. The importance of faith here is not necessarily eliminating stressors, but helping people cope with them better.
5. Drug Addiction Defense
Why is faith important for drug addicts and potentials? It gives them something healthy to get addicted to.
Addiction alters chemicals and neuropathways in the brain. This creates the impulsive behavior to seek out drugs that trigger the reward center, making the person feel better.
Religion can substitute this feeling. Some call it the “God High.”
This high triggers the same reward centers in the brain, flooding our bodies with serotonin, dopamine, and other feel-good chemicals. People actually get high off of worshipping. Fortunately, this “God High” does not come with any dangerous side effects like that from illicit drugs.
Another way religion keeps addicts from using is by surrounding them with a solid support group and providing them with a healthy routine. It does not eliminate the addiction, just alters the way they choose to get high.
6. A Healthy Network
Religion brings people closer together, building trusting bonds. Building a reliable network plays a significant role in keeping us both physically and mentally healthy. It’s like a personal toolkit.
People who build strong relationships tend to cope with hardships better and display better mental health overall. They lead happier lives, which, as we discussed earlier, leads to better cardiovascular health.
People within religious communities tend to lend helping hands whenever they see a member struggling. This can also help the person stay physically healthy, by not allowing them to get run down. Plus, when they do fall ill, helping hands can allow them the rest they need to get healthy faster.
7. Pain Management
Faith health aids in pain management. Religion provides coping strategies that put people in touch with themselves. This meditative type state can help a person deal with pain and other somatic symptoms.
Furthermore, prayer truly holds power. Some believe that their diety heals them, while others may call it a placebo effect. Regardless of which side of the fence you stand on, there is no denying that it actually works for believers.
Many religions also believe in laying hands on the suffering. Interestingly, science can back this one up as well.
Obstetricians actually tell mothers to place their naked infants to their bare skin, because they know that skin to skin touch produces a chemical cocktail of oxytocin and endorphins, that soothes the baby. These same chemicals can help to ease the pain.
Some of it though, science simply cannot completely explain. Religious belief and the people surrounding you create inexplicable energy that can help you cope.
8. Reduced Risk of Stroke
Different religious practices, like singing, praying and meditating actually lower people’s blood pressure. Hypertension leads to cardiovascular disease and stroke.
So, lowering your blood pressure and reducing your stress through faith can actually decrease your chances of suffering a stroke.
9. Longevity
People who turn to religion may actually live longer. When you read all the rest of the health benefits, it makes perfect sense.
Choosing faith over fear reduces stress and improves mental health. The improved mental state leads to better physical health.
The mix of a support system with improved mental and physical health create the opportunity to live a longer life. Moreover, these key factors improve the quality of one’s life as well.
Join the Best Religious Community for You
Research the different religions and attend church to learn more about the religious communities that interest you. Look inside yourself to see what your heart tells you feels right.
The benefits of religion will not only help you lead a healthier and longer life. They will also lead you to lead a happier life that will bring you a sense of fulfillment.
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