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This Is Your Brain on God: The Neuroscience of Spirituality

Proving that spiritual practices bless us in many ways

Marilyn Flower
Change Your Mind Change Your Life
5 min readApr 30, 2022

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image from Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedication

Thank God for neuroscience.

I always sensed that practices like prayer, chanting, meditation, and others have good effects on us. They help us calm down, slow our heart rate, relieve tension, and clear away negative thoughts, at least for a while.

Last week, in my story, How Does Prayer Fit with How We Treat Ourselves and the Earth? I shared how after praying, my spirits lift, my vibration raises, and my burdens lighten. I also shared how I’m using prayer beads to anchor me in prayer, chanting, and gratitude.

I’m here to report, I feel a whole lot better. Stress and worry are down, joy and enthusiasm are up. Is that because my neuropathways got rewired? And if so, will that change stick around?

This reminded me of a book I’d read a while back. Andrew Newbert, MD, and his partner Mark Robert Waldman’s, How God Changes Your Brain.

I decided to read it again. And the gems I’m learning are too bright to keep to myself.

So let’s dive right in.

Newberg and Waldman work at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Spirituality and the Mind. They study people…

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Change Your Mind Change Your Life
Change Your Mind Change Your Life

Published in Change Your Mind Change Your Life

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Marilyn Flower
Marilyn Flower

Written by Marilyn Flower

Writer, sacred fool, improviser, avid reader, novel forthcoming, soul collage facilitator, prayer warrior and did I say writer? https://linktr.ee/marilynflower

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