The Divine Prescription: Unleashing the Power of ‘Vitamin P’ Prayer

A couple of months ago, I received a message on Facebook. It moved me and strengthened my belief in the power of Vitamin P even more. Are you wondering what Vitamin P is? No, it isn’t a nutrient for your body but it could certainly be food for your soul. It stands for Prayer.

Before I share how it has transformed my life and my patients, I would like you to read this beautiful testimonial.

She writes, “I visualized this moment for years. The day I would meet with Luke. I started following him eight years ago. I remember meeting him briefly in Dubai. When I learned he was speaking at an event at the Taj, I hung out outside the hotel, hoping to meet him even for a minute and thank him for his video on cancer that gave my father so much more life when he was suffering.

I worked as a banker back then, and in between work, I followed all of his social media channels. Many of my colleagues did as well. You may call me a stalker, but all I am is a very grateful fan. I loved knowing which part of the world he was in and would pray for his safety every day and night.

When I read an interview in the Gulf Times about his journey with the Sheikh’s sister, who was suffering from cancer, and spoke of how Luke impacted not just her life but the whole family, I wanted to meet and hug him. I would and still go through every comment that people put for him on social media from around the world and wonder how many people he had healed without even knowing.

When the event ended and people rushed out, I waited patiently for Luke while others took pictures with him. He exited the hotel from the other side, around the main lobby, and I ran up and hugged him. I thought he would push me away, and he did gently, looking in surprise. I told him, “I just want a minute.” And he said, “Take 5. I am waiting to be picked up by a friend.” I offered to drive him, but someone was already on the way. I had tears in my eyes as I thanked him for everything.

I was going through a very difficult situation in life at that point, and something told me to share it with him. I did, and he listened. I spoke about how acidic and constipated I had become. He kindly guided me on what I should do. I remember him telling me for the emotional part of my problem to pray for guidance and to know that I am not alone. He also pointed out how unaccepting I was of many things in life and that I should learn to flow without becoming a doormat. 9 years later, here I am today, writing in. Luke, thank you for changing my life and health with that 5-minute talk.

I also want to share with you about a mother you met who came to you with her 4-year-old child who had a brain tumor. You met her outside the Saudi American hospital. She comes with her child, who is in remission today, and her husband to Saint Mary’s church every Sunday, where we meet. She speaks about how she asked you to pray over her child. You told her that she needed to ask a priest to do that, and you didn’t know how to do that. But she insisted that you hold her child and pray which you did. To date, she feels your energy transferred to her child.

Luke, I know you are the busiest person in the world, and you constantly consult and help people across the globe, but I want you to know we have a prayer group in Dubai that constantly prays for you every day.

And I know I can make an appointment and get to meet you. I don’t know how long I will have to wait for that. But I also know deep down, that I will bump into you again somewhere in this journey of life. You changed my life. My father is no more. He passed on peacefully 7 years later when we were told he had not more than a year to live. He always told me to meet you and thank you for giving him not just life but also understanding and peace.”

Your fan forever,
GD (Initials mentioned to protect identity)

Have you experienced the power of a divine intervention where complete surrender, prayer, and faith have pulled you out of the darkest times?

What does science say about the power of prayer?

“Prayer can break your train of thought and evoke relaxation.”
– Harvard professor of medicine, Dr. Herbert Benson

And many scientific studies echo this.

Scientific journals and papers point to the incredible power of prayer. Here are some leading studies that will make you want to give Vitamin P a chance:

• Patients with advanced cancer who found comfort in their religious and spiritual beliefs were more satisfied with their lives, were happier, and had less pain.
• Religious coping and social support showed improved immune responses in people with HIV/AIDS. It reduced distress and increased their quality of life (HRQoL)
• A study revealed that a combination of high parasympathetic activity and the interaction between the central nervous system (CNS) and autonomic nervous system (ANS) during prayer induces relaxation and minimizes anxiety.
• Another study revealed that reciting the rosary prayer (Ave Maria in Latin) and mantra (om-mani-padme-om) causes striking, powerful, and synchronous increases in existing cardiovascular rhythms when you recite it six times a minute.
• Results of a pain questionnaire distributed by the American Pain Society to hospitalized patients showed that prayer as a method of pain management was used more frequently than intravenous pain medication (66%), pain injections (62%), relaxation (33%), touch (19%), and massage (9%).
• Among 90 HIV-positive patients, spiritually active people had less fear of death and less guilt.
• A study of heart transplant patients revealed that those who took part in religious activities and said their beliefs were important complied better with follow-up treatment, had improved physical functioning at the 12-month follow-up visit, and had higher levels of self-esteem, less anxiety, and fewer health worries.

How do prayers work?

At Team Luke, we coach our patients to believe everything around us is energy. From the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe to the cells in our body – we are all bundles of energy. What does this mean? It means that we can create good or bad energy. When we utter a prayer with a clean heart and the correct intentions, it can generate good energy. On the other hand, when we do this to bring someone down, we emit bad energy.

When we consult thousands of people across the world, we empower them to leverage tools beyond medicine like prayer. Does this mean you can abandon your treatment and only turn to prayer? Certainly not. But can it play a powerful role in supporting healing? Yes.

Your prayers can affect you at a genetic level

Every gene has an activation or deactivation switch. Your lifestyle plays a crucial role in influencing this. While clean lifestyle habits can turn on genes that repair and heal you, unhealthy lifestyle habits can also turn on genes that can bring about sickness and disease. This phenomenon is known as epigenetics, where epi stands for the environment (both internal and external) and how it can control the functionality of a certain gene in the body.

Did you know prayers can awaken certain emotions in our system that can turn on and turn off certain genes?

Let me illustrate this for you. When you watch a funny video or movie for 30 minutes, or have a good laugh with friends, you can turn on over 700 genes that train your immune system to work for you. On the other hand, a drag, anxious, and angry lifestyle can also turn off the same 700 genes, dampening your immunity.

Similarly, prayers evoke positive emotions that can activate good genes. A study observed that women with metastatic breast cancer who valued spiritual expression highly exhibited significantly increased immune function (increased white cell counts and lymphocytes).

How to pray? Your 101 starter guide:

• Don’t practice spirituality as a fad. When you do this, you only complicate it. Choose simplicity instead.
• Remember, prayers are not any other to-do activity to check off your list. If you pray, let those prayers, their essence, and teachings slip into your daily life.
• The 3 most essentials when it comes to praying are:
  • Faith
  • Belief
  • Surrender
• Know that a prayer without any faith and belief is of no use.
• Many of us pray fervently daily and visit different religious places. And yet feel a nagging sense of anxiety and worry about the same problems we prayed and asked grace for.
• Understand that fear takes away the goodness of every single spiritual path and this kind of prayer holds no value. Every religion teaches us about surrendering.
• All you need to do is pray with utmost faith and belief and just surrender the outcome. Keep practicing your prayers till you build so much faith that there isn’t any room for fear anymore. let your faith be greater than your fears.

How to make a simple prayer?

• The easiest way to do this is to offer gratitude and count your blessings.
• It does not have to be a prayer to God. Remember, prayer in any form, if done with faith and belief counts.
• For instance, sit down and center yourself. Close your eyes and with deep faith pray: “Thank you for blessing the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink.”

A powerful prayer that came up in conversation in one of the episodes of my podcast, The Luke Coutinho Show with renowned author, educator, business consultant, and inspirational speaker, Shiv Khera was the Serenity Prayer. He recalled how this prayer changed his mindset and how he had never left home in the last 40 years without reciting its most prominent lines.

For those of you looking for it, written by German-American theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), here’s how this snippet of it goes:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Listen to the full episode here. 

Take it a step forward and offer a group prayer:

We run our own Sangha groups on Facebook where 57,000+ members offer and have experienced the power of group prayer. In our practice, our integrative experts pray for the clients before consults and one-on-one sessions. Become a part of our Reflections and Gratitude Sangha Group here. Join our Holistic Healing Sangha group here.

One of the most powerful ways to deepen your practice of prayer is to offer a group prayer. When people come together and pray for a particular cause – it could be for someone’s good health, success, peace, well-being, or safety, the energy emitted is amplified and multifold.

Our own Sangha groups have stories of how the prayers that have been offered immediately report an improvement in their health and relief, like certain surgical procedures going well, success in exams, and so on.

Have you wondered why people who have gone through their journey of cancer turn to spirituality?

In our line of work, we meet people who have never prayed a day in their lives but after a life-altering diagnosis, many of them have turned to spirituality and praying. What changed their mindset?

When you go through intense emotions and setbacks like critical disease, lost love, relationship issues, grief, unforgiveness, anger, trauma, betrayal, anything that can bring a sense of safety, recovery, and community can help the healing journey. And a focus on spirituality and prayer asking for this grace works for many.

Let’s rewind to your childhood. Do you remember how many of us as children and teenagers never were disinterested in participating in any spiritual or religious activities, visiting holy places or even praying at home? But as we grew older, we gradually moved to finding our paths to faith and belief. Some people make this transition sooner in life, while others do this much later.

If you struggle to pray for yourself, at least pray for someone else. It helps us feel good. It is a form of giving back good energy.

The bottom line

Remember, just because the results of your prayers are not immediate, does not mean they are not powerful. Use the power of prayer, because it is free. Don’t wait for another financial, emotional, or physical challenge to hit you. Ask for grace every day. Teach this to your little ones too.

Set the right intention. Pray with faith and belief. And last but not least, surrender. When we worry and are constantly anxious it’s because we have prayed without faith and belief and we have not surrendered. Difficult to do but keep practicing.

Amidst life’s ups and downs, hold onto faith, belief, and divine providence. Prayer can comfort, guide, and strengthen us to navigate the many uncertainties of life.

All it needs is a strong trust that everything happens for a reason. We only need to keep our hearts open to receive blessings. Choose to live with purpose and hope. And let your faith be greater than your fears.

While God or a higher power may not be visible or tangible, the benefits of prayer are. Use Vitamin P, a powerful medicine beyond medicine well.

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From a pimple to cancer, our You Care Wellness Program helps you find a way Talk to our integrative team of experts today  18001020253  info@lukecoutinho.com