Anxious Faith

‘Mindfulness’ is one of the big practices that are often recommended or suggested to people who are struggling with their mental health. But as Christians, is mindfulness something that we should throw ourselves into without question? Do we need to be careful in following these exercises?

This episode, we’re speaking with Dr Katherine Thompson, a mental health social worker, member of the Centre of Theology and Psychology, and author of Christ-Centred Mindfulness.  

Katherine first unpacks what mindfulness is, where it came from, and how it can help our minds and bodies. She then shares how she’s learned to integrate mindfulness and meditative practices with her faith, and takes us through a couple of ‘Christ-centred’ mindfulness exercises that listeners can follow along with.

--

If you’re interested in trying some of your own meditating on God’s Word, we’d love to introduce to you to a podcast produced by our colleagues in the UK office of Our Daily Bread Ministries. Evening Meditations are short, 10-minute daily episodes that encourage us to refocus our hearts on God and to untangle ourselves from the busyness of life.

--

Anxious Faith website

Follow us on Instagram

Follow us on TikTok

Subscribe on Youtube

Support Anxious Faith

--

Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you, or someone you know, are struggling with anxiety or your mental health, we’d really encourage you to speak to a doctor, mental health professional, or reach out to one of the organisations on our Help page.

As our Suicide Awareness Month comes to a close, we’re taking a look at some of the bigger questions that come along with the topic, such as ‘Was this my fault?’, ‘Could I have done more?’, and ‘How could God let this happen?’. 

To do that we’re hearing from Al Hsu, a writer in the US who wrote the Discovery Series When Suicide Strikes for Our Daily Bread Ministries, our parent ministry. Al sadly lost his own father to suicide when he was in his twenties, and has wrestled with each of these questions himself. 

In this episode, Al unpacks the concept of “false guilt” that’s common among suicide survivors, and shares with us that grief isn’t a race and that we have a gracious Heavenly Father who gives us permission to grieve.

To read more of Al’s story and reflections, find his 6-part series When Suicide Strikes here. You can also check out Al’s book, Grieving a Suicide: A Loved One’s Search for Comfort, Answers, and Hope.

--

Anxious Faith website

Follow us on Instagram

Follow us on TikTok

Subscribe on Youtube

Support Anxious Faith

--

Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you, or someone you know, are struggling with anxiety or your mental health, we’d really encourage you to speak to a doctor, mental health professional, or reach out to one of the organisations on our Help page.

If you listened to our last episode with Pippa, you’ll know that this month we’re opening up the conversation around suicide and hearing from people with firsthand experiences of it; whether they’ve lost someone to suicide or have considered suicide themselves. 

In this episode we’re hearing from Joshua, a young guy from New Zealand who suffered depression as a teen and came to the point of wanting to end his life. Joshua shares vulnerably with us about his thoughts at the time, including walking us through what was meant to be his ‘final day’ and sharing about the letter he wrote to farewell friends and family.

Through it all, Joshua’s story is one of hope. Thanks to a somewhat miraculous intervention, Joshua is still with us today and is transparent about his grappling with God and his mental health since that day. We’re grateful for his story, and grateful that he is around to share it. We hope that Joshua’s story will not only help those of us who have considered suicide to feel less alone, but also equip us all to better understand and spot the signs that someone we know might be at risk.

--

If you have questions about suicide or want to explore this topic more, we have a new page of Suicide Resources that will help you unpack the main theological thoughts on suicide, look at where we see it in the Bible, hear from others who have lost someone to suicide or attempted themselves, and learn how to help those who might be struggling. On our blog you can also read 6 Ways to Support Someone Struggling With Suicidal Ideation and How to Create a Suicide Safety Plan.

--

If this episode is troubling for you, please reach out to someone; whether that’s a family member, trusted friend, your pastor, doctor or psychologist, or you can visit our Helplines page for a list of organisations you can call.  

--

Anxious Faith website

Follow us on Instagram

Follow us on TikTok

Subscribe on Youtube

Support Anxious Faith

--

Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you, or someone you know, are struggling with anxiety or your mental health, we’d really encourage you to speak to a doctor, mental health professional, or reach out to one of the organisations on our Help page.

The topic of suicide is so often hidden away or only talked about in hushed conversations. But with all the fear and stigma surrounding it, those who might be struggling with suicidal ideation or the pain of losing someone to suicide run the risk of feeling like they’re alone; and here at Anxious Faith, we’re working to stop that.

This month, as part of opening up the conversation around suicide, we’re hearing from Pippa, a mother of two living in Newcastle, Australia. Four years ago, Pippa’s faith was challenged as she and her husband dealt with their teenage son’s deteriorating mental health. Sadly, they lost that son to suicide.

Pippa is raw and honest as she shares her family’s story of unimaginable grief and pain, but she also encourages us that God is no less with us in the messiness of life. Four years on, Pippa says her pain is still as deep, but that she’s been able to see glimpses of colour creeping back into her life, and though it’s still a journey of daily rebuilding her trust in God, Pippa maintains that He is good.

Our team, as well as Pippa and her family, pray that God will speak to you through this powerful episode. If you have questions about suicide or want to explore this topic more, we have a new page of Suicide Resources on our website that will help you unpack the main theological thoughts on suicide, look at where we see it in the Bible, hear from others who have lost someone to suicide or attempted themselves, and learn how to help those who might be struggling. 

--

Read a blog post version of Pippa’s story

--

Anxious Faith website

Follow us on Instagram

Follow us on TikTok

Subscribe on Youtube

Support Anxious Faith

--

Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you, or someone you know, are struggling with anxiety or your mental health, we’d really encourage you to speak to a doctor, mental health professional, or reach out to one of the organisations on our Help page.

This month, we're going to be focusing on suicide. If we thought mental health wasn't talked about enough in churches, suicide is a whole other level. This bonus ep gives us a brief overview at what we'll look at.

Also head to our Suicide Resource Page on the Anxious Faith website for more resources and content.

--

Anxious Faith website

Follow us on Instagram

Follow us on TikTok

Subscribe on Youtube

Support Anxious Faith

--

Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you, or someone you know, are struggling with anxiety or your mental health, we’d really encourage you to speak to a doctor, mental health professional, or reach out to one of the organisations on our Help page.

As you probably know, we started this podcast focussing on anxiety and how it plays out with our faith. But as our range of guests – and our audience – has grown, we’re now stepping back to look at a broader range of mental conditions. 

This episode, we’re hearing from an expert about some of the different types of mental illnesses, their risk factors, and how we can respond to those struggling. And who better to learn from than Prof Kuruvilla George, a psychiatrist with over 40 years of experience?

KG, as he’s known, was a practising psychiatrist both in the UK and here in Australia, where he’s worked in clinical practice, headed up programs for hospitals, taught as a clinical professor at universities, and even served as the Deputy Chief Psychiatrist for the state of Victoria for 10 years. 

Now he’s retired, and spends his time using his medical knowledge – as well as his faith – to break the stigma of mental illness in the church through his work with the Centre for Theology and Psychology in Melbourne, Australia.

We're not going to address every question we might have about mental illness, but we hope this kind of overview will help give us all a better understanding of how mental illnesses differ from one another, what causes them, how we approach this topic as Christians, and how we can be caring for those with a mental illness. 

--

Centre for Theology and Psychology

Spotting the Signs seminar at CTP

--

Anxious Faith website

Follow us on Instagram

Follow us on TikTok

Subscribe on Youtube

Support Anxious Faith

--

Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you, or someone you know, are struggling with anxiety or your mental health, we’d really encourage you to speak to a doctor, mental health professional, or reach out to one of the organisations on our Help page.

One of the recurring themes throughout Anxious Faith to this point has been one of people who in dealing with their mental illness sometimes coming up against well meaning churches or other Christians, who invariable may hinder more than help. But while many people have had that experience, it isn’t the only one. And in learning how to better address and engage mental health in our faith communities, sharing stories of what to do is just as important as learning from experiences of where we’ve gone wrong.

This episode we're speaking to Harrison, a youth pastor at a church in Auckland, who through his own experience with anxiety, has developed a huge heart for making the church and youth group a space where mental health is openly and honestly addressed. 

--

Harrison's Church's YouVersion/Bible app reading plan - Wellbeing: An Invitation to a Flourishing Life

--

Anxious Faith website

Follow us on Instagram

Follow us on TikTok

Subscribe on Youtube

Support Anxious Faith

--

Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you, or someone you know, are struggling with anxiety or your mental health, we’d really encourage you to speak to a doctor, mental health professional, or reach out to one of the organisations on our Help page.

Depression, self-harm and suicidal thoughts are far more common than we probably realise.

Today, we’re chatting to Maddy; you may recognise her as our team’s Editor and Content Writer, or from Episode 6 where she and her husband shared on navigating a relationship with mental illness. But today, Maddy is sharing a new part of her story that she’s never opened up about publicly–her battle with depression, self-harm and suicide ideation.

Depression came for Maddy in her late teens. Not overnight, but over a period of months; a gradual descent into a darkness so deep that it consumed everything in her life. Worried about being a burden and afraid of letting people down, Maddy struggled with thoughts that maybe life would be better for others without her in it. 

In Christian communities, there can often be an assumption that depression is caused by a rift between you and God, and that ‘getting better’ is as simple as coming back to faith and learning to trust in Him again. As Maddy started opening up about her depression, well-meaning people prayed that she would “come back to God” and “feel His presence”.

But for Maddy, that wasn’t the case at all. In fact, God’s presence was one of the only things she felt during that time–and some of her most beautiful and intimate moments with God were right in the thick of her depression, when talking to Him was all that she could do.

Listen as Maddy shares about her holistic road to recovery–how she prayed for healing, but the ‘healing’ came slowly–through professional support, through community, through healthy habits, and ultimately, through trusting that God was still with her in the ‘in-between’. 

We hope that this episode encourages you that wrestling with mental illness doesn’t mean you’re far from God, and that there is hope and recovery from depression, even if it comes slowly. God’s healing is no less miraculous whether it happens in an instant, over time, or is still to come

--

Maddy has also written a blog post based on her story called ‘My Healing From Depression Came Slowly’.

--

Anxious Faith website

Follow us on Instagram

Follow us on TikTok

Subscribe on Youtube

Support Anxious Faith

--

Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you, or someone you know, are struggling with anxiety or your mental health, we’d really encourage you to speak to a doctor, mental health professional, or reach out to one of the organisations on our Help page.

Psychology can sometimes be a tricky topic, especially within the church. The practice of psychology–or any form of therapy, really–is often seen as taboo; something to avoid because it might not align with our faith.

So isn’t going to a professional for our problems suggesting that God isn’t enough?

Does seeing a psychologist–especially one who might not be a Christian–go against our faith? Can the two go hand in hand?

In this episode, we’re chatting with Chris–a familiar voice here at Anxious Faith. Previously, Chris has shared with us his own journey with depression (listen to that episode here), and how visits to a psychologist were a key part of helping him through it.

--

Read the blog post to accompany this episode called, ‘If Jesus Is Enough, Why Would I Need Psychology?’

--

Anxious Faith website

Follow us on Instagram

Follow us on TikTok

Subscribe on Youtube

Support Anxious Faith

--

Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you, or someone you know, are struggling with anxiety or your mental health, we’d really encourage you to speak to a doctor, mental health professional, or reach out to one of the organisations on our Help page.

In our early episodes, we’ve been sharing stories about people who struggle with Anxiety conditions, and learning how that plays out with their faith. 

But what about all the other mental health conditions we can face?

In this episode we’re speaking to Jemimah, a university student from Melbourne who was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (commonly referred to as OCD). 

OCD is something that is often completely misunderstood, and as a result significantly trivialised – many of us might think that having OCD means you like having your bookshelves arranged evenly, or that you need to wash your hands constantly. But the reality for someone suffering from this condition is so much more than those common stereotypes.

Jemimah shares with us what it’s like to live with OCD, and the way it affects her life. But Jemimah is also a person of faith, and today, she opens up about what it’s like to know that she is a new creation in Christ, all the while still dealing with the intrusive thoughts and negative effects of her mental health disorder. 

She’ll also share with us some of the helpful–and not so helpful–things people have said in an attempt to support her, and how she’s learned to keep turning to God, even when it’s the last thing she feels like doing.

We hope you’ll be encouraged by how Jemimah’s faith sustains her, even when her mind feels like it’s out of her control.

--

Anxious Faith website

Follow us on Instagram

Follow us on TikTok

Subscribe on Youtube

Support Anxious Faith

--

Anxious Faith is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries. If you, or someone you know, are struggling with anxiety or your mental health, we’d really encourage you to speak to a doctor, mental health professional, or reach out to one of the organisations on our Help page.