Prayer and Meditation for Weight Loss

As a nutritionist, herbalist and healing minister I believe the power to lose weight and be healed in the process is naturally within each of us. I encourage each of my clients why only rely on the natural, when they could have the supernatural. This supernatural power I'm speaking of in not found in religion, but in relationship with God. So how is this relationship developed? Like any relationship, with time and through prayer. Is the purpose for prayer to change God, or to change you? If you believe God is all knowing, all powerful, and all loving, the answer is clear, prayer is to change you. That is the final piece in is this puzzle of effective weight loss, if your overweight you must change.

Once I was praying with a client and the door to my office opened and quickly closed. A few days later I had heard back that someone had said, "His weight loss concepts are so hard, he has to pray in order for them to work." After hearing this I laughed and responded, "How quickly we can believe in a money back guarantee, but miss the supernatural guarantee, that with God all things are possible."

Many believe prayer to be communication with God. A time where the natural world connects with the supernatural. The question becomes, are you having a one way, or two-way conversation? Do you spend most of your prayer time informing an all-knowing God, what He already knows, or opening up your heart to hear His response? This is the mystery of God, are we waiting for God to act, or is He waiting for us to receive?

Western medicine until recently has ignored the importance of spirituality in the healing process. Though scientific studies and medical research still have natural limitation to prove the power of the supernatural, that gap is evaporating. Science is now quick to ask the question, "can faith heal?" As for millions of Americans, scientific verification isn't required. When interviewed Dr. Harold Koenig director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University Medical Center was quick to point out, "praying for your health is one of the most common alternative treatments people do on their own. About 90 percent of Americans pray at some point in their lives. I think many people are convinced that prayer works. Otherwise, I don't think they would do it." Dr. Koenig said, His own research and recent studies by other universities have convinced him that prayer, much like diet and exercise has a connection with better health."

In a recent government nationwide survey, 36 percent of Americans over the age of 18 years reported to use some type of Alternative medicine. In the survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, questions on 27 alternative therapies, divided into provider-administered or self-administered were asked. The survey reported the 10 most popular alternative therapies and percent of Americans using them were:

Prayer for own health 43%
Natural products (Vitamins, herbs, enzymes) 19%
Deep breathing exercises 12%
Meditation 8%
Chiropractic care 8%
Yoga 5%
Massage 5%
Diet-based therapies 4%