Prayer makes a difference, and it's OK to make your own prayer

By Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP

Prayers are powerful. We know this. Studies have actually proven that prayer makes a difference in people’s health and well-being. I like to refer to the book Prayer is Good Medicine: How to Reap the Healing Benefits of Prayer by Larry Dossey, which documents how prayer has been steadily gaining interest in the traditional medical establishment.

Dossey, who is a physician, takes a look at promising data, as well as the skeptics, delving into  questions as why doesn't prayer always work – and if prayer simply creates a "false hope." He has gone on to write several other books to muse and document the science and controversy of premonitions and the shadow side of prayer.

Dossey compares prayer to traditional therapies and observes that when prayer is used with other orthodox and alternative measures, it is powerful medicine. His research also shows that prayer is democratic – no one religion holds a monopoly on the effectiveness of prayer, and a person does not need to be “religious” to pray effectively or to reap the health benefits of prayer.

With that in mind, I’ve composed a prayer that I use myself and offer to clients who are willing to try it out. Of course, you may adapt, adjust and add to this prayer, just as I do. Experiment with it and allow yourself to reach out to bigger and wider energies.

In this moment, I humbly call:

Light angels and loving spirits...
Wise doctors, teachers, shamans and healers of all ages, traditions and cultures...
Healing guides...
Saints and wisdom holders...
Christ consciousness...
Buddha consciousness...
Healing consciousness...
Ancestors...

Help me, support me, strengthen me and stand with me for continued healing and growth.
Let me easily release the energies, the beliefs and the patterns that no longer serve me.
Inspire me to do good for myself and within my family, my community and the world.

Thank you.