Ok here we go! I’ll chime in with a bit of my experience—(will also pay it forward).
As far as mental health, I don’t think I fully realized how much I neglected this area of my life because I always thought I had things under control. I wasn’t someone who ever smoked, drank (just socially), or partied, so from a physical standpoint, I figured I was doing pretty good. But I’ve learned that it’s easy to solely focus on one part of your well-being and completely overlook the mental or spiritual side of things.
It’s think its definitely true though that as you get older, you start to notice patterns or behaviors in yourself that trace back to past experiences—or maybe even stem from childhood. You might not even realize why you do certain things until you stop and reflect. For me, I’ve always dealt with anxiety without really recognizing the roots, and over the past 10 years, life threw me into situations that made it skyrocket. I got married young, questioned my faith, and struggled to hold a job. It felt like free-falling, and it triggered waves of anxiety, stress, and fear.
Through this process, I came to see how much my life was shaped by harsh, condemning false beliefs. I also believed that God was out to “get me” when I messed up. These ideas and lies I held onto for so long weighed me down in ways I didn’t even notice until I started to unpack them.
(Now, I’m not here to push my faith or beliefs on anyone—this is just my personal experience and what I’ve come to understand.)
For me, I realized that while things like “mindfulness” or clearing my thoughts can help calm the mind, it’s only half of the equation. The lies we believe don’t just disappear (since they’ve been planted and watered over time and we just come to accept them) - they have to be uprooted and replaced with something stronger. That’s where truth comes in. Over time, I’ve come to see that the truth has the power to break those lies (John 8:31-32), and God’s perfect love has a way of pushing out fear (1 John 4:18).
That’s when this whole “gospel” thing (some may have heard it called the “good news,”) started to actually make sense to me. I came to understand that my wrongdoing (sin) actually separates me from a perfect God (Romans 3:23), and the consequence of that is death (Romans 6:23). So no amount of trying to be a good person or working on myself could fix that. The only way for me to actually be forgiven was for someone to take my place, and that’s exactly what Jesus did. He took on my sin, paid the debt I couldn’t, and made a relationship with God possible again (2 Corinthians 5:21). It all clicked.
Essentially, I realized however I tried to distract myself, whether bad or even “good,” like going to the gym/self-improvement, it could never satisfy that deeper spiritual longing. All my false beliefs I had about myself and how I saw the world fell apart when I started to see the truth of who God is and what He says about me and my life.
All this is to say… is that there’s a spiritual need in all of us that we can’t escape or ignore. And it’s also not something we can just fill with quick fixes like money, girls, drugs, or achievements cause honestly, believe me, I’ve tried. For me, it’s only been through a relationship with Christ that I’ve found the forgiveness, true peace, and fulfillment I’d always been searching for, and honestly everything else has fallen into place after that. So yes, taking care of my body physically has definitely pushed me to also care for my mental and spiritual health, and I’ve found that when I prioritize one, it strengthens the other and vice versa. It’s all connected!
Now I’m done preaching, haha. And no, this isn’t to say I don’t have any issues or that life is bliss now, or that I’m perfect by any means. I still make mistakes and mess up badly. What I’m saying is that there’s grace for yesterday’s failures, and that grace has the power to transform. With God, all things are possible.
Thank you for taking the time to read. If anything sparked any inspiration or you need to talk or have any questions, please feel free to send me a DM.
Also Thanks for putting this event on @mae , much needed!
