I grew up in a religious household and attended a missionary school for much of my life. Each morning began with my mother ringing a bell to ward off negativity (and my sleep as a bonus) in the house, while chanting Hindu Hymns. Even as I biked to school, I would be graced with a few Azaans and Aartis on the way, where eventually we would start the day with praying (again).
It’s safe to say that my day started with prayer and ended with one, and while I didn’t think of it much then, I can’t say the same now.
According to research by Eleanor Schille-Hudson, a postdoctoral research scientist in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University in California, US, prayer is a form of cognitive practice that closely resembles problem solving. And consciously practising it can lead to enhancing problem-solving capabilities.
What Is A Problem
As per, ‘Human Problem Solving’ (1970), a problem consists of 3 states: a problem state (something you want to fix or figure out), a goal state (what/how you want things to look like in the end), and an operational state that‘ll help to get from the problem to the solution.
To give you an example, consider a case of not finding your house keys. Here, the problem becomes: the lost house keys. The goal becomes to find your keys and get inside your house, and the operational state becomes how to find the keys.
Now, if we observe prayers, it seems to be a simple act of reaching out to God, ways of expressing devotion, seeking connection, or asking for help. But if you listened a little more closely and consciously, you would notice how prayers often followed a deeper, more structured pattern – one that resembled problem-solving.
Prayer usually began with a problem state: something wrong, unclear, or in need of change. The person praying might be wrestling with grief, uncertainty, fear, or a difficult decision. This starting point – the recognition of something that needs fixing or figuring out – becomes the problem.
Then comes the goal state: through prayer, we articulate what we hope for — not just outcomes, but inner states as well – hope, comfort, strength, and wisdom. Sometimes we also ask for material outcomes, but more often we seek emotional clarity, spiritual peace, or the courage to act. In other words, we try to envision where we want to arrive.
Finally, the operational state surfaces through the prayer itself through mental acts of reflection and engagement. As we pray, we also pay attention to our own thoughts and experiences; shape our desires, confront fears, remind ourselves of values, and often uncover new ways of thinking about our situation.
The very act of praying creates a pathway from problem to goal. The pathway to arriving at the goal differs for everyone, sometimes by fostering insight, sometimes by building resilience, sometimes simply by sustaining them long enough to move forward.
Read More: Do Prayers Really Work, And The Science Behind It
How Prayer Promotes Cognitive Capacity
As per Eleanor, Prayer shows all evidence of Pólya’s problem-solving steps and helped the participants understand and change their perspective on problems during the study. Prayer helped them make a plan and gave them a clear sense of what approach to lean on after praying, and it made them feel more motivated to work on their problems.
The participants also stated that prayer helped them realise solutions directly. Additionally, except for five participants from a group of 151, they further said that prayer assists them in resolving conflicts with others, at least sometimes.
In Pólya’s terms, prayer and thinking aloud are equally good at understanding the problem and making a plan. However, while thinking aloud and prayer are both ways of solving problems, prayer seems to be more therapeutic.
Several studies and research show that praying in a group promotes prosocial behaviours. It also alleviates anxiety; heightens gratitude and wellbeing, and enhances resilience in people. An Iranian Study on prayer suggests that praying results in physiological benefits and overall well-being.
A study examining various body positions during prayer shows that the act can evoke various emotions, especially positive ones. Moreover, an interesting study from the early 2000s indicates that prayer can also influence the results of in vitro fertilisation.
In their book, How God Changes Your Brain (2009), Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman studied a specific meditative practice requiring 12 daily minutes of breath work, chanting, and finger movements. They discovered that participants exhibited significantly increased activity in the anterior cingulate, which aligns with research on dedicated Buddhist and Christian contemplatives who show pronounced brain activity patterns during meditation or prayer.
A Call To Deepen Our Humanity
Prayer has always been a practice shrouded in spiritual fog; it is a concept that eludes definition; it is wildly baffling and even contradictory to some extent, but it is not merely about asking God for help.
It is also about participating in a process of intrinsic change and guidance. Through prayer, we engage in a kind of spiritual problem-solving: identifying what’s not working and needs to be changed, imagining what healing or resolution would look like, and using prayer to begin the journey between the two.
However, with increasing and compelling research into this holistic activity, many discoveries are surfacing, which is transforming this practice from a sacred tradition to one of neutrality, inviting people from all walks of belief – agnostic, deistic, atheist, theist, etc, to inculcate it as a habit for better health, and brain function.
Does praying truly enhance well-being and brain function? It may or may not; however, this scientific literature urges everyone to explore practices that have been followed, passed down, and participated in by people across ages and cultures to look beyond the surface and investigate the experiences and nuances that underlie them.
Hence, irrespective of prevailing beliefs, prayer, I feel, is a ritual of pause, reflection, and intention-setting that holds immense potential to uncover ourselves and maybe, something greater.
However, as modern science and ancient wisdom continue to intertwine, entangle, and permeate, we are being invited to not just ask whether it works, but to explore how it works and how this timeless practice has been deepening the human experience in ways we are only beginning to understand.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Plos.org, Scielo, PsyArXiv
Find the blogger: @sejalsejal38
This post is tagged under: Prayer, Neuroscience, Problem Solving, Pólya’s Theory, Spiritual Growth, Meditation, Self-Awareness, Emotional Resilience, Religious Practices, Modern Rituals, Brain Function, Mindfulness Techniques, Academic Research, Human Behaviour, Cognitive Psychology, Science behind prayer
Disclaimer: We do not hold any rights or copyrights to the images used; these have been obtained from Google. If you are the owner and require credits or removal, please kindly email us.
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