Tag Archives: prayer beads

Prayer For Stress Relief: Getting Help From a Higher Power

When you’re stressed and things look hopeless, remember there’s always a way. And in tough times, prayer can be a powerful tool for hope, renewed faith, and yes, stress relief.

Here’s how prayer works to give strength and hope in the darkest of times.

Whatever your belief system may be – if you believe in God or a Higher Power of any name, praying will help.

Here is the phone number of a prayer hotline that I highly recommend (Unity):

1-800-NOW-PRAY

It’s free, the people who will pray with you are wonderfully calming and reassuring, and they’ll even send you an encouraging letter afterwards. Meanwhile, your name will be held in prayer for 30 days after your call. You’re not alone.

Another wonderful Prayer Line is staffed by Science of Mind practitioners. It too is free, and you can call them around the clock at 1-800-421-9600.

Of course, you can also pray by yourself. In fact, that’s a very good idea.

Here are my two favorite books that have helped me learn how to pray more effectively:

Adventures in Prayer – Sharon Connors

Handle with Prayer – Alan Cohen

Both of them have their spiritual roots in Unity, which isn’t exactly a religion but more of a non-denominational spiritual movement of seekers, with strong emphasis on inclusiveness, and very compatible with The Secret and Abraham-Hicks teachings. I find it very life-affirming. No matter which religious background, if any, you come from, you will likely get some peace of mind from prayer.

In terms of how to pray: “Please help!” is always appropriate. Of course, “Please help me out by bringing that $10,000 I need to pay my Amex bill right now!” may not be the best approach, especially if you don’t believe it’s actually possible. However, “Please give me guidance on what to do at each step of the journey, and please give me the strength to handle whatever comes my way, and the faith and trust that everything will turn out for the best” may help a lot.

Even more importantly: Give thanks for the blessings already received and for those you anticipate. Pray as if you had already received them, as if you knew that the best outcome for all concerned (including you) were just around the corner and had already been provided: “Thank you for your divine guidance, and for keeping me safe.”

Feel free to pray to your guardian angel as well (provided that it fits with your faith). Or to other deities. It all depends on your beliefs. Ganesh, a Hindu deity, known as the destroyer of obstacles, for example, is very popular for obvious reasons.

Ready to let go of all that extra stress? You’re invited to download my FREE Easy Intro to EFT and get started right away. Why EFT? It’s an extremely powerful tool for stress relief!

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo and Mixing Religious Traditions

Nam-myoho renge kyo, Ohm, or Christmas carols. Is mixing spiritual traditions sacreledge or a sign of new spiritual openness?

It’s Christmas season, with Santas in the malls and in store window displays. It’s also the season of Hanukkah and Kwanza, plus there are other spiritual traditions that celebrate this part of the year.

I was just thinking about that because I’ve been mixing some traditions myself and I used to feel a bit guilty…

As I mentioned before, I often chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo ever since I learned about it, and I also learned that chanting is supposed to be done in multiples of 108.

Of course, that’s where prayer beads come in. I don’t always count… sometimes I just feel inspired to chant and do it without keeping track, just letting myself be guided from some place within.

But when I thought about acquiring prayer beads, not too long after I found out about the significance of 108, I suddenly realized something. A rosary has 54 beads, not counting the five that are on that extra short bit that ends in the cross. So I figured — two rosaries make 108 beads, right?

And I started using a rosary for chanting. No thunder has struck me yet, but then I have told hardly anybody about that. It works great, but I still felt a bit guilty.

Apparently, I shouldn’t have. I just Googled “rosaries and chanting” and came up with this site:

http://www.healingsindia.com/rosaries.asp

And praying the rosary is much like chanting anyway, except the prayers are from the Catholic tradition. I had the rosary handy because a few years back I re-discovered that praying the rosary really supported me during very stressful times. Yet clearly, the rosary has a much broader tradition than I had realized.

And so does Christmas, which actually has some of its roots in Pagan traditions.

And at Unity, the church were I’ve found my spiritual home base, all faiths are welcome, and as the year goes on, a number of traditions are highlighted and invited to participate in the service.

After all, why not share celebrations with each other and enrich everyone’s life?