Basics
Eat well, drink well, and get moving. Looking after your physical needs and trying to be healthy is proven to be good for your mental health. Do whatever it takes to improve in these areas! Research suggests that a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, and regular moderate exercise, boosts wellbeing. God made a beautiful green world for us to enjoy, exercising outside has extra benefits to mental health.
Connection
Cultivating meaningful connections paves the way for good mental and emotional health. Take care of your friendships, don’t take them for granted. Learning to listen well and to be vulnerable in relationships builds a good foundation for friendship. Ask a good friend for feedback on how you are doing! If you are struggling to connect, be proactive, creative and brave. Join a mid-week group at church, find a support group, volunteer for a charity, be intentional about meeting up with friends. If you are feeling lonely - read our section on loneliness for ideas on how to grow. God can help you grow and be healed from past wounds that can stop you relating healthily to people around you.
One way you can cultivate meaningful relationships is to join a mid-week church group. Coming to church on a sunday is good to inspire us and help us draw near to God, but Christian faith is worked out in the day to day in community. You can find out more about our mid-week groups here
Sleep
Getting quality sleep, and enough of it, is essential for physical and mental health. Stress, worries, big life events, changes to shift-work or daily routines and changes in home life can affect our sleep. Using electronic devices such as tablets, mobile phones or even the TV before bed, can disrupt sleep, as can caffeinated drinks, cigarettes, alcohol, and some medications and drugs. Your bedroom can affect your sleep, as temperature, light and noise can all disrupt sleep. If you are struggling with sleep you may need to see a doctor, therapist or pray with a trusted friend about why you are not sleeping. Don’t wait too long!
Perspective
This is about cultivating a realistic but kind view of yourself and the world around you. Learn how to process your experiences, be kind to yourself , learn to measure your performance realistically. If you habitually avoid processing difficult experiences and emotions it will affect your mental health. Openness to new experiences and having the courage to fail are important for mental and emotional health. Christian faith changes your perspective as you grow closer to God, the bible reminds us repeatedly that transformation is possible as you grow closer to God.
Do you need to work on your perspectives? Here are 3 ways to change:
Reading the bible shapes your perspective with ideas and truths that will challenge you and at times prompt you to change. It helps you keep a realistic view of yourself and the problems in the world and keeps you depending on God. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
Process the past in a healthy way. Join our wholeness course, seek help and prayer from those with experience in this area. Listen to podcasts and talks that challenge you to go deeper and understand your thoughts and motivations. Seek healing from the past.
Practice being kind to yourself. If you struggle in this area there will be reasons for it, make it your aim to understand yourself better. Treat yourself with the same kindness, concern and support you’d show a good friend facing struggles. Rather than reproaching yourself, recognise that life is full of mistakes and inadequacies. Self-compassion fosters resilience in the face of adversity.
Know your values
Living a life consistent with your values leads to improved wellbeing. Be aware of your own values – of how you would like to lead your life, behave towards others, and treat yourself. For a Christian our values are centred on the life of Christ. Christ calls us to a life of love empowered by the Holy Spirit who is freely given to believers. Living according to these values are good for well-being. Make it your aim to explore the life of Christ both on your own and in community with others who believe in him. This is better for your wellbeing than responding to events habitually, without awareness or purpose.
Can you come up with a list of values you want to live by based on the life of Jesus?
Laugh more
Laughter really is good medicine. Humour that expresses positive emotion and messages (rather than humour that puts yourself or other people down), is good for your mental health. It has been found to release ‘feel good’ hormones, increase optimism, improve your mood over time, and improve relationships by increasing connection and intimacy.
An intriguing question to ask is, how can I laugh more?
Balance
We all have many roles in life. You might be a parent, a partner, an employee, a student, a church member, a teammate, a carer or a volunteer. It is easy to feel pulled between responsibilities and it can be tempting to sacrifice important parts of your life. This can leave you less satisfied and more stressed. Research has shown that balance is good for wellbeing. Think about how satisfied you are with the different areas of your life: relationships, work, recreation, health, exercise, self-development, and spiritual life. How balanced is your life - honestly? Relaxation, fun, time-out, contemplation and solitude are essential ingredients of a balanced life. Adventure, risk and stretching yourself are also part of a balanced life. Where do you need to grow?
Make a list of goals around improving the balance in your life. How are you going to achieve the first goal?
Seek help if you need it
We want to tackle the stigma for Christians around mental health issues. There are many effective treatments available for people experiencing mental health difficulties and they can work alongside Christian healing prayer. Don’t delay. See your GP or look for a psychologist with experience in addressing your issues. Seek help from someone you trust at church. At Woodlands church we have prayer available every sunday at all our services, you can also contact the pastoral team on the Woodlands church website.
Twice a year we run the Wholeness Course which gives us an opportunity to reflect deeply on our lives and who we are becoming, why not book in for the next one on the Woodlands Church website?
Find out more about Wholeness here
We also have an ME and Long Covid support group and a Course that looks at overcoming eating disorders called New ID running at Woodlands church, find out more here.
Healing
Ultimately we believe that good mental, emotional and spiritual health comes from a fulfilling relationship with God. We believe that Jesus Christ came to earth to rescue the human race and to set each one of us free. Many people have found healing and freedom in Jesus Christ and we believe that you can too.
If you want to find out more about Christian faith why not try our Alpha Course? You can find out more about Alpha here .
Purpose
Do you know your purpose in life? Do you have a sense of meaning to your days? There is a difference between happiness and meaning. Happiness is defined as a state of comfort and feeling good in the moment, but meaning comes from belonging to and serving something beyond yourself, which helps you grow and develop as a person. Our culture is obsessed with happiness, but we are called to find meaning in loving and knowing God. Studies show that people who have meaning in life are more resilient, do better in school and at work and live longer. Christians believe that ultimately meaning is found in a fulfilling relationship with God and the world around them.
