Can Prayer Involve Neuroplasticity?
I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer lately. Mostly because I’ve been feeling like I need to pray more. I don’t necessarily mean that I need to go to church more or be more religious. But I do feel like I need to communicate with God more. I’m not sure if that makes sense to anyone else.
I was talking to a friend about this recently and she brought up the idea of neuroplasticity. She suggested that perhaps when we pray, we are actually rewiring our brains. And I thought that was an interesting idea.
So, I did some research on the subject and it turns out that there is some evidence to support the idea that prayer can involve neuroplasticity. For example, one study found that people who engage in regular prayer have more activity in the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain associated with higher-level cognitive functions like planning and decision-making.
Another study found that people who pray regularly have increased thickness in the cortex, which is the part of the brain associated with attention and memory. This suggests that prayer may help to improve our cognitive function.
Of course, more research needs to be done on this subject. But I think it’s interesting to consider the possibility that prayer may actually change our brains for the better. Who knows, maybe it’s something we should all be doing more of!