This blog is meant for me to give a more open and straightforward message to those who care to read it. I want to utilize the important aspects of community building with a sense of belonging in creating a link between Faith and Mental Health.
Story of Percy:
Percy was a man I once met who portrayed a sense of calm and strength. He was a man of few words, at the time, and gave off an aura of “If you have something important to say, say it, otherwise shut up”. Percy came into my office, gave a quick look around the room, then said “Hmmph, I’ll talk when I want to”, as if replying to the poster I have on my wall saying “Communication is key to a healthy life”. I obliged, and gestured him to sit.
He sat in the chair opposite to me, folded his arms, waited around 5 minutes just staring at me, and began the conversation with “I don’t know why I am here”. I asked him “What brings you here, then?”. His stoicism shatters as his face warps into one of anger and rage, he begins to raise his voice “My wife said I had to come, said I have anger issues and I drink too much. What does she know? You know she just says that because…” and then continues to talk for nearly 40 minutes straight.
I listen, reflect, paraphrase, hear him, and most importantly, don’t judge him. I ask him to expand on what he felt in moments of pain, and if he is able to see what was more then just anger. Disrespect, fear of loss, grief, anxiety, guilt, shame, depression, hurt, and all emotions he had not dared to name 45 minutes ago. He weeps at his life and how it has become. He states he cannot look at himself in the mirror anymore. He feels trapped, pressured, and as if he must always know the answer with the responsibility tightening around him.
I ask him “What do you want to do, who do you want to be?”. He is taken aback. He states “I have lived for others for so long, I don’t even know. I used to love sports, but now I don’t know if I can do that”. He returns to just physical things. I ask him again, but this time specifically about qualities and virtues. He says he wish he had time for God again, to be a good person again, and that was one of the only moments in his life when he felt at peace and happy. But, he feels he cannot commit to that anymore and only goes to church when he is not exhausted. We discuss more about practicality and the whole picture. I quote scripture, we pray together. I show the reflection of God’s love doesn’t have to be days or week long endeavors, but can be anything; mindfulness.
It had been over an hour at this point, but I can see the mirrors in his eyes. I ask him “How do you feel now after talking?”. The man, once so stoic, who was so red with anger, now placated and smiling. He says “As if a weight has been lifted off my shoulder”. He stands up, shakes my hand, looks into my eyes and says “Thank you for listening to me”. I say “Thank you for trusting and sharing this, you, with me”.
Percy’s journey reminds us that when we open our hearts to both compassionate support and the gentle guidance of faith, we find the strength to break our chains and rediscover the light within us.
Reason for this Blog:
So often I see people lost in ways they often aren’t able to see. I offer guidance, but they resist due to their primed heuristics. They deflect, blame, attack, defend, avoid, become violent, cry, state “there is too much, if I start now it’ll never stop” or “no one can help me”, and/or go silent. It has caused me many sleepless nights pondering how best I could help those who cannot see the harm they have control over, or those who felt they lost all control over anything.
By creating this website and this blog, I am hoping to fill the niche that plagues so many of the people I have cared about over the years. Christianity has always been a place of refuge, sanctuary, and acceptance. It has created a lasting movement of hope, purpose, and meaning beyond what many felt was possible. How many lives has it saved? How many sins it has cleansed? Too many to count, I imagine. In this way, whether we like it or not, it is intrinsically tied to Mental Health. What is Mental Health if not refuge from the storms of life? What is it if not sanctuary when no other place feels safe outside our own minds? What is it if not acceptance of who you were, your mistakes you made, and who you are now? Christianity is Mental Health, and to acknowledge this is to see the path towards what our society needs now more then ever; a path towards true freedom.
Thus, the tenets and completeness of Christianity must also be reflected in Mental Health. One of these tenets is Faith. This concept, which many deride and ridicule, is the true test and rigor of Christianity’s power. God’s power. The gift given to us to form our ideas and the basis of us to create a realm of true belief and knowledge beyond what we can see. “The evidence of things not seen” as Hebrews tells us.
To work on Mental Health, one must work on their Faith. And, thus, to work on Faith, one must work on their Mental Health. To know more about yourself and the strength inside you is to see beyond dysthymia. To know about the mind itself is to see beyond agoraphobia. Their grips only hold so long as we feel powerless, or, we believe ourselves to be helpless. God has granted us the divine right of freedom, but as pointed out by Rousseau; Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains. To neglect our Mental Health is ultimately to neglect our Faith, as they are intertwined. It is the chains that stop us from pursuing the life we deserve as is ordained by God almighty.
I invite you in this website and on these blogs to explore, accept, and see where your chains can be broken. To truly explore the healthy pureness of God and see the path he has laid for you. So, as you can see from all that is written in the past, present, and whatever may be written yet to come: You are the only one able to bridge the gap between Mental Health and Faith.
Recommended Reading:
How Spiritual Practices can Bolster Mental Health
Discover how integrating spiritual practices like mindfulness and meditation into clinical care can improve mental health and aid trauma recovery. This article, written by Sebastian Salicru, highlights evidence that such ethical techniques foster positive psychobiological changes.