The Rosary Ritual & Yoga Mantra Ritual: for good breathing

Luciano Bernardi, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Pavia in Italy, published a study that found recitation of prayers had a beneficial effect on breathing rate, blood pressure, and circulation of blood to the brain.

He studied two types of recitations in particular — the Catholic rosary, said in Latin, and yoga mantras.  He found that both recitations slowed the adults’ breathing rates to almost exactly 6 breaths per minutes, which has a bunch of great health benefits for the cardiovascular and respiratory system.

Bernardi also concludes, “We believe that the rosary may have partly evolved because it synchronised with the inherent cardiovascular (Mayer) rhythms, and thus gave a feeling of wellbeing, and perhaps an increased responsiveness to the religious message.”

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