Change your prayer life, manage anxiety through meditation
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Romans 8:26
It’s safe to say that the current events taking place across the world have thrown us all for a loop. In one way or another, we’ve all been and will continue to be affected by the Coronavirus pandemic for quite some time.
The uncertainty caused by the outbreak, combined with the constant flood of information, and seemingly never-ending supply of experts and opinions is a recipe for fear and anxiety, even for the most unwavering believers.
So how do we stay focused on Jesus through the chaos? When you’ve been laid off. When you’ve lost a loved one. When your toddler asks you for their fifteenth snack of the day, and it’s not even noon.
If you ask Dr. Matt Lyon, it takes practice. And he would know. He’s spent nearly the last 30 years building his arsenal of mind-body practices that yield a number of health and spiritual benefits – namely, stress and anxiety.
“I think for most of us, it’s this very interesting incremental process of choice, and of habit,” Lyon said.
At a young age, he became obsessed with learning what creates wellness in people, what helps people manage their own stress and how to engage our bodies as self-healing, self-regulating mechanisms.
His technique merges neuroscience, psychology, spirituality, nutrition and movement. The principals can be applied to all sorts of issues – from stress-related problems like digestion, allergies, and headaches, to anxiety, depression and eating disorders.
“Pain becomes a great catalyst for progress, he said. “Suffering, on the other hand, is when we’re somewhere and we want to be somewhere else, but we don’t have the tools, we don’t have the purpose. That’s suffering because then we feel like we have no agency.”
So Lyon has made it his mission to equip people with the tools they need to connect the dots between mind, body and spirit. And for the purpose of this interview – to help deepen our prayer lives and better connect with Jesus.
He says there are some simple things we can do to speed up the process of neurological change. In doing that, we can actually become more attuned to God’s purpose, which is in us and around us all the time.
In order to tune into it, Lyon says it’s important to have a directionality to our focus that gives us a clear target.
“God gave us this hardware, this body. What software I choose to run on it are my choice,” Lyon said. “If I’m running the app of fear and I’m running the software of constant anxiety, it actually drowns out my ability to download His message. Now He’ll get through one way or the other, but I have a part in it.”
Just like we have to choose to follow Jesus in the first place, we have to continue to choose Him again and again, moment by moment.
That’s where meditation comes in.
So, what is meditation and how does it differ from traditional prayer?
Lyon explains that prayer is often thought of as a “transactional” encounter, where we’re asking God to give us something.
But the truth is, we really don’t know what we want or need. That’s what the Apostle Paul was getting at in Romans 8:26. And it’s why it’s so important that we invite the Holy Spirit to pray IN us.
“It’s not some conceptual thing. It’s a very real phenomenon,” Lyon said. “And then I can back it up scientifically because then I know how people’s brains are changing. Their brain waves are slowing down.”
Lyon teaches a simple breathing exercise called “box breathing,” which involves breathing in for a count of six, holding for a count of six, breathing out for a count of six and holding for a count of six. He also teaches the “Jesus prayer” which involves similar breathing with added repetitive phrases or prayers to Jesus.
If you want the full benefits of the exercise, you should really listen to the podcast and follow along as Dr. Lyon guides us through a series of breathing exercises and the Jesus Prayer.
The benefits are pretty amazing.
Lyon explains how the breath actually slows down your nervous system, causing your stress hormones to decrease and your brain to release oxytocin, also known as the love hormone. It will leave your relaxed and open up your heart. Plus Lyon says it can increase your immune system up to 50% for seven hours.
Research has shown that after just eleven days of this kind of prayer and meditation you can see permanent changes in peoples’ neural structures. Sign us up!
At the core of Made New is the belief that when we give our hearts to Jesus, we are quite literally made new. (2 Corinthians 5:17) We know this because the Bible says so. But it never hurts when science affirms what we already know to be true about God.
If you found this interview to be helpful and want to learn more about Dr. Lyon’s teachings, including access to his free meditation webinars, check out his website.
And again, if you missed the podcast episode, you can catch up here.