Dr. David DeSteno

And so for us, you know, right here was evidence that these practices make you kinder, make you more compassionate.

The other way, what does it save you from in terms of stress?

This isn't my work, but there's a lot of work on prayer.

And so when people pray, especially if you're reciting formal prayers, not so much if you're just having a conversation with God, but if you're saying the rosary or you're reciting, you know, Hindu sutras or any formulaic prayer, what it typically does is it reduces your respiration rate.

Not only does it reduce your respiration rate, but it also tends to increase the duration of the exhalations.

And this is for meditation as well.

What does that do?

I mean, you talk about breathwork a lot on your show, right?

What it does is it increases vagal tone, reduces heart rate.

It puts the body in a state where it is...

not expecting threat or challenge in the environment where it wants to engage and be more open to socialization.

It reduces cortisol responses.

And so what it's basically doing there is, yes, you're saying the words,

but it's reducing the stress in your body.

And even if you're praying about things that are bothering you, things that you're sad or anxious about, by saying those prayers over and over again, stuff travels up the vagus, right?

And so by increasing exhalations, by slowing the respiration rate, it's telling your mind you're safe, things are okay, and thereby it's reducing the stress.

And so when you look at that data from Tyler Vanderbilt that I mentioned on young adults who pray, why does it reduce stress?

It's basically a way of increasing vagal tone in that moment.

And it helps you sit with the ideas of the things that are bothering you while physiologically your body's telling you you're safe.

Yeah, I mean, the way I like to think about these rituals, as you're mentioning, is they're really sophisticated mind-body practices.