Author: D. R. Meriwether, Ph.D.

A Christian Approach to Mental Health, Part 2: Faith, Stigma, and Mental Illness

~ D. R. Meriwether, Ph.D. ~ Leave a comment

Header image credit: me // Featured image credit: Marcel Strauß (freely available via Unsplash)

In part 1 of this series, I discussed how the mind and body are inextricably connected, each one affecting the other, and how the mind is the battleground for our great mental and spiritual battles. I concluded by arguing that a proper approach to mental health must be comprehensive (i.e., must acknowledge this reality) and by hinting that a failure to do so, accompanied by a misunderstanding of what faith is, is a likely cause for at least some the stigma surrounding mental health in the Christian community.

In this second part of the series, I’ll lay out a very basic theology of mental illness that addresses the role of faith in healing and the purpose that our struggles serve. I won’t go into a theology of why it happens (perhaps in another post), but long story short, it’s because we live in a broken world.

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A Christian Approach to Mental Health, Part 1: The Mind and Mental Health

~ D. R. Meriwether, Ph.D. ~ Leave a comment

Header image credit: me // Featured image credit: Marcel Strauß (freely available via Unsplash)

Since May is mental health awareness month, it seems like a good time to talk about a faith-based approach to mental health. This is an important topic not only because mental health is vitally important to our well-being as individuals and as a society as a whole, but also because mental illness is arguably more stigmatized within the Christian community than it is within the broader community. And that stigma seems to be based on misguided views of how mental health works and of what the Bible actually says about mental health practices.

There is a contingent within the broader Christian community that views mental health issues as a sign of a lack of faith and that considers mindfulness and other psychotherapeutic techniques as unnecessary at best and as heretical at worst  My goal is to show that the exact opposite is true: mental health issues are a sign of a broken world and are no more to be stigmatized than are physical health issues (i.e., not stigmatized at all; just a brokenness that needs to be fixed, a hurt that needs healing); and not only are mindfulness and psychotherapeutic practices necessary for a healthy life, but they are actually supported—no, more than that, mandated—by Scripture.

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The Happiness—and Holiness—of a Life Lived Joyfully

~ D. R. Meriwether, Ph.D. ~ Leave a comment

Header image credit: me // Featured image credit: cmophoto.net (freely available via Unsplash)

“Don’t try to add more years to your life. Better add more life to your years.”

Blaise Pascal

With no disrespect to Pascal and his genius, while I agree with the latter part of his above assertion, I don’t agree with the first part. Yes, it is far more important to fill our years with life than it is to fill our life with years, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to add years. There are lots of things we can do to promote longevity, and, by all means, let’s do those things; let’s do what we can to live longer. But we must beware of confusing quantity with quality. We mustn’t focus so much on lengthening life that we forget to enjoy life for however long we have it.

After all, joylessness might just be the most innocuously damaging sin we didn’t know we were committing.

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A Potentially Unpopular Perspective on Body Positivity

~ D. R. Meriwether, Ph.D. ~ Leave a comment

Header image credit: me // Featured image credit: De’Andre Bush (freely available via Unsplash)

Okay, here comes the unpopular perspective: the body positivity movement might be doing more harm than good.

There I said it.

Now, before anyone jumps down my throat, hear me out.

Let me begin by saying that I have no intention or desire to shame anybody or any body type. I do not want to promote a one-size-fits-all approach that suggests that beauty is limited to a certain few kinds of appearances. Quite the opposite. I believe that everybody—and every body—is a beautiful creation and worthy of being honored, regardless of size, shape, color, ability, or any other characteristic.

But, here’s my concern: when we focus too much on body positivity, we risk normalizing and turning a blind eye to unhealthy habits—habits that will destroy the bodies we profess to honor.

That doesn’t sound like love. And it doesn’t sound very positive.

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From the Heart No. 2: Heart-Healthy Eating (or, Freedom from Food)

~ D. R. Meriwether, Ph.D. ~ Leave a comment

Header image credit: me // Featured image credit: Julian Hanslmaier (freely available via Unsplash)

There’s so much information available on the Internet about what healthy eating looks like; so, being no nutritionist, I’m not going to presume that I have much to add to that discussion (though I might relay some of that discussion some day). But, having a background in psychology and a nearly lifelong, unhealthy relationship with food, I do have something to add to the discussion of what a healthy approach to eating looks like—at least for me.

In line with that, this post is about having a heart-healthy diet not in the literal, cardiovascular sense of “heart-healthy”, but in the metaphorical, emotional sense of the term—which, I would argue, is the more important of the two. After all, having an emotionally healthier attitude towards food can make it easier to have a nutritionally healthier diet, whereas changing what you eat may not as potently affect how you feel about what you eat. At least that’s been my experience.

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A SMART Way to Smash Your Goals

~ D. R. Meriwether, Ph.D. ~ Leave a comment

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As cliché as it might be to write about goals in January, it’s also an appropriate time: with New Year’s resolutions on everyone’s minds, I might as well write about how to be more effective—that is, how to be SMARTer—about making those goals and with sticking to them. Among other tricks and techniques, one simple way to be more effective in your resolutions is to make them into SMART goals.

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Happiness through Mindlessness

~ D. R. Meriwether, Ph.D. ~ 3 Comments

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Following up on my last post’s discussion about happiness and mindfulness, I want to talk a little bit about something that’s similar, yet almost the inverse: flow. The experience of flow is still very much an experience of being in the present, but it involves being so fully absorbed by and engaged with what you’re working on that the associated feeling of well-being derives less from an active practice of mindfulness and almost more from a present mindlessness.

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Mindfulness for Mind Fullness

~ D. R. Meriwether, Ph.D. ~ 6 Comments

Header image credit: me // Featured image credit: Keegan Houser (freely available via Unsplash)

Mindfulness. It’s a word that’s been thrown out a lot in recent years. But what exactly is it? What does it entail? What does it do? Why is it so popular? Is it just another fad, popular now, only to fall off when we realize there’s actually nothing to it. If you just want quick, to-the-point answers, here you go, in order: a practice that can be trained; potentially many different things; great things for mental and physical health; likely due to the fact that it works; and no. If you want more detailed answers, read on.

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From the Heart No. 1: On Goals (Or, Great Expectations II: The Problems and the Pitfalls)

~ D. R. Meriwether, Ph.D. ~ Leave a comment

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I’m going to do something a little different in this post, what I intend to be the first of many such occasional posts: rather than talk about science and connect lots of interesting facts and findings together, I’m going to speak from the heart and use anecdotal experience rather than empirical evidence to make my points. (Wow, and even in that disclaimer, I still sound like scientific fact man. So on with it already!)

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Great Expectations: The Fact and the Fiction (But Not the Fictional Novel, Sorry)

~ D. R. Meriwether, Ph.D. ~ 4 Comments

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Thomas Edison. One of the world’s most recognized and renowned inventors. Also, supposedly, addled as a child. While tales of the incident have been exaggerated, as Snopes reports, as a boy, Edison had overheard a teacher describe him as addled and not worth keeping in school. Upon hearing of the incident, his mother (and apparently his greatest champion) angrily told off the teacher, telling him that her son had more brains than he did. Young Edison’s response was a resolved determination to “be worthy of her and show her that her confidence was not misplaced.”

That’s the power of positive expectations.

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