Can Science Prove Prayer Works?
Sammy Step
According to Jewish tradition, sleep is a whole lot like death. That means when we wake up, the number one priority is thanking the Divine big time for granting us another day of life. And it’s not just a bunch of slavish thank yous that Judaism instructs us to make. No no, there’s a very thoughtful and thought out protocol for these expressions of gratitude. Check it out:
Traditionally, the day starts with the prayer Modeh Ani, recited while still in bed, thanking the Divine who has “mercifully returned” our souls to our bodies. But when we get up, the next shot is called by our bodies: we have to pee. After we do that, it’s the Divine’s turn again; time to reflect on what appears to be the lowliest of body functions.
After using the bathroom in the morning, Judaism asks Jews to recite the Asher Yatzar to thank the Divine for creating our bodies as whole, intricate systems with many, many parts, that all combine and connect to properly function. Kind of a miraculous feat.
Jews then affirm that the Divine “heals all flesh and does wonders,” which, in essence, celebrates our corporeal existence. Finally, Jews recite the short but sweet Elohai Neshama to thank the Divine for creating our soul and the souls of all our ancestors, and then for returning our souls to us after sleep/death. This final prayer of gratitude is a testament to the Divine’s protection of spirit.
These morning gratitude prayers honor both body and soul. But what happens to the brain in these grateful expressions?
As it turns out, gratitude is a very complex emotion! Scientists have discovered that feeling grateful lights up many different brain regions, including areas involved in the ability to have perspective about one’s own situation, empathy, morals, awareness and comprehension of self, and even the part of your brain that regulates hormone release. And then there’s one of the most interesting parts of gratitude - the warm and fuzzies you get when you feel truly grateful.
We don’t associate feeling thankful with eating, gambling, drinking, doing drugs, and having sex. But as it turns out, gratitude produces pleasure in very much the same way these activities do — by lighting up the brain’s reward pathway. This pathway, known primarily for its release of the chemical dopamine, has been a heavy hitter in evolutionary development. Triggering a pleasurable feeling while engaged in activities that help us survive (eating energy-rich, fatty, and sugary foods, engaging in sexual reproduction, and winning fights) encouraged these behaviors, and thus a human being’s survival.
Today however, we end up overindulging our pleasure center through these activities, all of which are easily within reach, but no longer help us survive in the ways they used to. But gratitude, which also lights up the reward center, remember, has a different effect. The more we express gratitude, the greater our pleasure and contentment grows. Evidence even suggests that experiencing gratitude improves our relationships and increases our overall happiness.
Which brings us back to prayer. Many Jewish prayers are, at their core, gratitude practices. Line after line, Jews thank the Divine for every aspect of being alive, from the banal physical ability to pee to possessing the gift of a pure soul housed in a complex, working physical body. These prayerful gratitude practices help establish a baseline of awe for the elements that make up existence.
Here, we begin to see some of the beautiful benefits of prayer, and of gratitude’s cousin, awe! But why express gratitude for the same things, every morning, day after day?
One word: neuroplasticity. For generations, scientists thought that shortly after birth, the pathways of the brain became fixed for life. However, more and more evidence tells a different story. We humans are dynamic changing beings, and our brains are too. And neuroplastic change doesn’t just happen by chance.
Think of the cliché “practice makes perfect.” It’s actually sort of true; the more you do something with your brain, like express gratitude, the more you’re asking the neurons connect in a certain way, which makes it easier for those neurons to connect again in the future. That means practicing gratitude actually increases your ability to feel gratitude, and lights up that super important reward center.
A 2003 study from UC Davis and University of Miami verified this fact. Researchers asked participants to work on their ability to experience gratitude by recording what they were grateful for each day. Those who had kept a gratitude journal were compared to those who had kept a journal of neutral or annoying events. Researchers found that after only 10 weeks, those who had kept a gratitude journal enjoyed greater life satisfaction, increased optimism, and fewer physical ailments. These subjects even exercised more! No doubt about it, gratitude is a powerful thing; other studies have linked experiencing gratitude to the reduction in depression and an increase in personal well-being.
Before we close out, we’re gonna say one thing again because it’s that important: accessing awe every day enhances our ability to feel awe. When we appreciate both our bodies and spirits with the help of ritual and prayer, we strengthen our capacity to feel grateful. The more we pray and appreciate, the more we find holiness in everyday life, the more gratitude we experience, the stronger the positive effects are, and the farther our positivity radiates. And we’re super thankful for that.