Another important episode. There's been so many studies in recent years that seem to suggest there are health benefits to religion and spirituality, especially when it comes to the link between building meaning in life and mental health. AND especially for young people. And yet, somehow, these findings seem to keep flying under the radar. Perhaps because we don't want to believe them because we feel like we shouldn't believe them because we've been taught that science and religion are inherently opposed to one another. And that's just not true.
My own struggle with mental illness is what led to me reconnecting with religion and spirituality in my own life, not as a "believer" but as something of an outside admirer. Reading religious and theological texts, as well as writing my own thoughts on the subjects, has been a source of great insight and meaning-making in my own life that helped in the early days of dealing with bipolar II as I desperately tried to understand what was happening to me. It was that sense of confusion and helplessness that was the worst part of it all, but with resources from religion, I was able to build a framework for understanding myself via new ways of understanding the mind. BUT Western medicine was also a huge part of my healing process in the form of medication. Science and religion are both important, and they are not enemies - at least, they shouldn't be.
Great insight, Allen. You capture beautifully how, when we harness the best of what science and religion have to offer, they become invaluable assets both in our personal lives AND in pushing humanity forward."
Brilliant study and timely article. I've had severe depression, anxiety and PTSD for decades, and have been put on numerous medications but none of them worked for me. I am/was a herpetologist (study of reptiles and amphibians) until my mental health and my life took an unexpected turn, which resulted in a long term period of self-isolation, grief, and devastating loss. As a scientist and former (almost militant) atheist, it came as a surprise to me that I began to feel a desire for spirituality that was my own, as I tend to find deep truths in a myriad of religions and practices.
The article here makes me think of the neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor, who suffered a life-altering stroke which led her to an awareness of a sort of cosmic consciousness, in which we are not separate from the whole, a state of being she experienced after several governing aspects of her own brain went offline. In my own life I had a sort of breakdown which spirituality has helped repair, the thing Father Richard Rohr calls Order to Disorder to Re-Order, and I think it's probably something we have to experience so that we can evolve into the divine experience that is life. It's our time of wandering in the wilderness, our Dark Night of the Soul, where we meet God.
Sandra you offer such rich thoughts in this single comment. Thanks for sharing your story. So glad you were able to find resources both from spiritual sources and in the literature of neuroscience. Definitely hitting the Soul Boom nail on the head. And speaking of Jill Bolte Taylor, her TED talk is pretty terrific.
Another important episode. There's been so many studies in recent years that seem to suggest there are health benefits to religion and spirituality, especially when it comes to the link between building meaning in life and mental health. AND especially for young people. And yet, somehow, these findings seem to keep flying under the radar. Perhaps because we don't want to believe them because we feel like we shouldn't believe them because we've been taught that science and religion are inherently opposed to one another. And that's just not true.
My own struggle with mental illness is what led to me reconnecting with religion and spirituality in my own life, not as a "believer" but as something of an outside admirer. Reading religious and theological texts, as well as writing my own thoughts on the subjects, has been a source of great insight and meaning-making in my own life that helped in the early days of dealing with bipolar II as I desperately tried to understand what was happening to me. It was that sense of confusion and helplessness that was the worst part of it all, but with resources from religion, I was able to build a framework for understanding myself via new ways of understanding the mind. BUT Western medicine was also a huge part of my healing process in the form of medication. Science and religion are both important, and they are not enemies - at least, they shouldn't be.
Great insight, Allen. You capture beautifully how, when we harness the best of what science and religion have to offer, they become invaluable assets both in our personal lives AND in pushing humanity forward."
Brilliant study and timely article. I've had severe depression, anxiety and PTSD for decades, and have been put on numerous medications but none of them worked for me. I am/was a herpetologist (study of reptiles and amphibians) until my mental health and my life took an unexpected turn, which resulted in a long term period of self-isolation, grief, and devastating loss. As a scientist and former (almost militant) atheist, it came as a surprise to me that I began to feel a desire for spirituality that was my own, as I tend to find deep truths in a myriad of religions and practices.
The article here makes me think of the neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor, who suffered a life-altering stroke which led her to an awareness of a sort of cosmic consciousness, in which we are not separate from the whole, a state of being she experienced after several governing aspects of her own brain went offline. In my own life I had a sort of breakdown which spirituality has helped repair, the thing Father Richard Rohr calls Order to Disorder to Re-Order, and I think it's probably something we have to experience so that we can evolve into the divine experience that is life. It's our time of wandering in the wilderness, our Dark Night of the Soul, where we meet God.
Sandra you offer such rich thoughts in this single comment. Thanks for sharing your story. So glad you were able to find resources both from spiritual sources and in the literature of neuroscience. Definitely hitting the Soul Boom nail on the head. And speaking of Jill Bolte Taylor, her TED talk is pretty terrific.