CHAPTER 22 FAITH AND PRAYER 279FAITH AND PRAYER ASSESSMENT
■ What does your faith mean to you? Has it changed during your illness?
■ What is the importance of this faith in your daily life?
■ Do your beliefs influence the way you think about your health or look at your ill-
ness?
■ How important is your religious identification? Do you belong to an organized
group?
■ List your religious practices, such as worship, prayer, or meditation.
■ What is the role of prayer in your life?
■ How are your prayers answered?
PROJECTING LOVE
- Visualize someone for whom you have loving feelings. Let the love you feel sur-
round your whole body inside and out. Concentrate on these feelings and project
them to this person. - Next, visualize someone toward whom you have warm feelings that are not as
strong as for the first person. As you focus, send these feelings of love and appreci-
ation to that person. - Next, visualize someone toward whom you have neutral feelings, nothing strong
either way. As you focus on the person, bring the same intensity of love and appre-
ciation you felt for the first two people to the third. Send these feelings to that per-
son. - Now visualize someone you have some difficulty with, perhaps whom you dislike
but not very intensely. Bring to this person the same feelings of love and apprecia-
tion. - Finally, visualize someone you have a strong dislike for, and again, as you focus on
this person, bring the same degree of love and appreciation you felt for the others.
It may be helpful to focus on the person’s heart as you do this exercise. Send these
feelings to that person.