All Christians

We know that the holidays for mental health can be a very tough time, even more so with COVID in the holidays. So my church has decided that this year we are going to talk about it for the holidays with a series titled Christmas Feels. This is not the first time my church has used the pulpit to address faith and mental health, last year dedicating a whole month during May with mental health awareness month.

Brett Ullman is a person with lived experience with mental illness and being a Christian, talking about what this looks like for his own spiritual and emotional walk. Honestly, the video below doesn’t say anything new with what we already talk about on here, but it’s powerful because it’s from his own lived experience and so I urge you to take the 8 minutes to watch how your church can become a safe place for those with mental illness. If you want to see more about what he has to say about mental health, check out his website here.

We are in the final month of the year that was like any other year in our lifetime. Phrases like “the new normal” have defined many people’s experience, others regularly are posting satire like “I want a refund on 2020.” But I’m going to do a technique counselors use in a session when someone is suffering called reframing and incorporate some of God’s Word into it.

Our friends over at Hope Made Strong who put on the Mental Health Summit that we spoke at. They recently posted a great video talking about why people during the holidays “flip their lid” and how to prevent that for yourself next time you are getting upset.

The Gottman Institute is the leading research in improving relationships for marriages and couples across the world, looking at what the research says instead of taking an idea and trying it out. We actually previously talked about the emotional bank to improve your relationship and the video below takes it one step further in practically how you can apply this. We also share some worksheets you could use today from their The Marriage Clinic book.

The holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years offers for many a time of remembrance for the year, solidarity with our family and friends, and aspirations of a new year as we continue to grow and develop within our abilities and abilities with God. For many with mental illness or mental health problems, the holidays have the opposite effects, reminding them how disjointed they are from loved ones, memories they wish they could forget entirely, and a belief that another year is another failure. And that’s all before COVID hit.

Ted Talks has a huge presence on YouTube and we have highlighted them several times on topics such as how to serve children of incarcerated fathers, getting better sleep, improving your ability to listen, and educating yourself on the opioid epidemic. There is a whole series on the Ted Talk channel called TedEd that educates people on mental illness, this video talking about what causes panic attacks?

[This article is part of a youth ministry series we have been writing about for years. Click the link to check out all of the other articles we have here.]

While alcohol is traditionally seen as a substance that is not always associated with illicit substances, the impact that it can have on individuals of any age can be long-lasting and more fatal at times than drugs, yet is more normalized and therefore more risky with teenagers. While most areas have a specific age when alcohol is allowed for drinking, underage drinking is still a concern. To help educate youth pastors and community members to develop awareness, we want to share 10 facts to know about teens and alcohol.

Anxiety, depression, or any other mental illness is not a death sentence or time to be stuck in fear, but an opportunity for you to grow and explore. In fact, we don’t want you to discover a new normal, but to thrive into a new you where you find strengths with God and His gifts to you. Let God refine you and come out stronger because of Him.

What does mental and emotional health look like in the midst of chaos? Is it possible to continue to thrive? If you want to take a look at Grace Alliance’s Thrive workbook and how you can talk about the science and faith interconnection in a Christian mental health group, check it out here.

There are times where we have a whole series of articles around a single topic that tying them into one central article to reference them all is necessary. Kind of like a table of contents for the series. We have specifically wanted to help support youth pastors in collaborating with counseling topics and agencies, so here is your one-stop shop with all of the resources we have talked about with youth ministry.