— by William Norvell

“Our soul is like an inner stream of water, which gives strength, direction, and harmony to every other element of our life.”

— Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart

Let’s Define Mental Wellness 

According to the Global Wellness Institute, when we talk about mental wellness, we are focusing not just on our mental or cognitive functioning but also on our emotions; our social relationships; our ability to function in daily life; and even our spiritual, religious, and/or existential state. 

One of the most misunderstood points regarding mental wellness is that the absence of mental illness does not equate to the presence of mental wellness. Simply because someone is not diagnosed with a specific condition does not mean they exhibit mental wellness. Similarly, the absence of disease in the body does not equate to a healthy body. 

It’s hard to open up a newspaper or turn on your phone without seeing a report on the mental-illness crisis in the world, but I think that is only part of the problem, and we need to focus on the bigger mental-wellness issue. 

We need to find resources for those in crisis, yes, but we also need to focus on everyone up and down the spectrum—from crisis to health. This is mainly because, for most people, life is lived on a continuum—moving from crisis to health and every spot in between. 

As Christians, we are uniquely equipped to understand the human condition because Jesus is the Author of that condition. For this reason, I think the pursuit of mental-wellness solutions is a call that all Christians should answer loudly, as it will be the defining pandemic of our time. 

People are often scared to admit that we are in the midst of a mental wellness pandemic. Why don’t we admit it? It is partly because of fear and partly because of misunderstanding and stigma. I have been calling it the Unspoken Pandemic and have recently dedicated most of my waking hours to working on a solution.  

We must strive to help people understand that it’s who they become that matters, not what they do. We are all being formed—intentionally or unintentionally—each moment of each day, but we must understand that in order to flourish and bring flourishing to the communities to which we are called. 

The Greatest Commandment Commands a Pursuit of Mental Wellness 

In the Gospel of Matthew, the responsibility of the Christian life is summed up beautifully by none other than Jesus:  

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:36-40 

I have heard this command so many times in so many situations, but it was not until recently that I read this in light of the mental wellness pandemic. When you really look deeply into this command, it is a command to pursue mental wellness and then love God and others out of that place of wellness. 

If we are lacking mental wellness, how could we possibly attempt to live out this command? In my own life, I have never once thought that my ability to love God and others is correlated to my mental wellness. Increasingly, I’m trying to see that everything should be an instrument to make this possibility a reality… and then love can flow freely. 

Contributing Factors to the Crisis 

While there are many contributing factors to this crisis, I do see a few factors rise above the rest. 

Home/Work Life Merged

People have historically been able to easily separate their home lives from their work lives and look to integrate them into a holistic vision of what they are called to. However, with the advances of technology and the “always on” culture, holistic calling no longer exists, and people have no idea how to integrate (or separate) their home/work lives.  

Community Dissipated

Prior to the last few decades, people found themselves part of communities that gave them belonging and safe places to discuss and process life. Neighbors, shop owners, local run-ins—these opportunities have all shrunk, leading to a bottling up of emotions and thoughts. Remote work has also caused many professionals to feel disconnected from community. Increasingly, there is not enough time and space to form deep friendships that lead to deep soul-changing conversations.   

Note, meaningful communities are spaces I feel that Christians take for granted. Many of us do have a small group or community group or whatever your church calls it. Think of the gift of having 10–15 decently well-intentioned folks come to your house every week to ask how your life is and to offer prayer and support in many ways. Non-Christians routinely have nothing that resembles this construct and are struggling even more than we know. 

Stigma of Mental Problems

While sigmas related to mental health have started to change during the pandemic, we still have a long way to go until it’s “ok to not be ok.” Additionally, even though this has changed a bit, people are not comfortable in this space, and others do not know how to engage when people share uncomfortable details. 

The “Aiight” Gospel

I first heard this in college and have never forgotten it. The majority of people in this world, when asked how they are doing, especially from a mental and/or spiritual perspective, say they are just doing “aiight” (slang for “all right” when you are from Alabama). It takes a really strong person to push hard to get to the root of issues when they continually get this response.

Hurry

Potentially the most significant factor is the fact that we simply cannot slow down our lives anymore. Does anyone remember boredom—those times when you literally had nothing to do, maybe for an hour, or a few minutes, but sometimes for ENTIRE DAYS! You’d wake up, nothing was on the agenda, and you would just figure the day out—create games, reflect on life, pray, let learnings set in, and generally live in freedom for many moments. 

These factors above (along with many others) have created an atmosphere that is not conducive to mental wellness. It will take proactive, not reactive, changes to alter the course of mental wellness in the world. 

Employers Bear Some Responsibility for Mental Wellness

98% of CEOs in a recent Deloitte study agreed that employee mental health and well-being will be a priority well after the pandemic ends. That is obviously a staggering statistic, and it points to the fact that employers are realizing that employee well-being is no longer a benefit but a necessity. 

Whether it is a good thing or not, people are finding more and more of their life’s mission at the workplace. Younger workers are increasingly seeking belonging and a sense of mission with each and every job that they take, which ups the stakes on what employers need to provide to motivate employees. 

The trappings of the modern-day office—full of snacks, fun, and SWAG—are simply not enough anymore.   

In response to this crisis, I and a few others set out to study and figure out a potential solution to this crisis – a crisis that is admittedly not leaving any time soon. After many months, we decided the answer harkens back to the greatest commandment—we need to deeply understand our souls so that we can love God, love ourselves, and then love others. 

SoulCare as a Solution to the Current Mental Wellness Crisis

What exactly are we made of, according to the Bible? If you study carefully, it is said that we are each a body (which connects to the material world), a spirit (which connects to the immaterial world), and a soul (which is the integration point between the two, not our silhouettes floating up into the sky like a cartoon). 

The soul is our mind, will, and emotions. It is our personality. It’s the essence of who we are and who we interact with when we speak to each other. Ultimately, it is my (and my co-founder’s) belief that ministering to the soul is the ultimate way to lead people to mental wellness and, therefore, give them the ability to either

1. Live out the great commandment if they are a Christ follower, or…

2. Allow them the opportunity to feel there is something greater than themselves that they should seek to understand—ultimately bringing peace to their lives in hopes that they will seek the Truth, of which Jesus is the only ultimate answer.  

It is for this reason that we founded Paraclete, the world’s first SoulCare platform, to aid in helping this crisis come to an end.  

In its simplest form, SoulCare is the practice of Whole Human Integration: integrating life, work, and everything in between. We need to all remember that we are human beings, not human doings. While this is easy to say, it is much more difficult to practice.   

Human Connection as the Backbone of Mental Wellness 

As I have studied the mental wellness pandemic, I have seen so many recent studies that suggest that feeling disconnected from others is as significant a health risk as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and a lack of physical activity.  

One of my favorite neuroscientists (perhaps my favorite as the only one I read), Curt Thompson, likes to say that we can only know ourselves in relationship to another human being. I only understand myself as a brother, father, husband, and co-worker by experiencing and seeing how other human beings live these roles out in their lives and by discussing my observations with them.  

In fact, from his book The Anatomy of the Soul … “When a person tells her story and is truly heard and understood, both she and the listener undergo actual changes in their brain circuitry. They feel a greater sense of emotional and relational connection, decreased anxiety, and a greater awareness of and compassion for others’ suffering. Using the language of neuroscience, [a fellow neuroscientist] Dr. Siegel labeled the change ‘increased integration.’” 

Turns out, God created humans to need other humans. 

It is for this reason that we created SoulCare, the ability to connect with someone trained in integration practices to help people on this journey to wholeness. For it is our sincere hope that all people in this world would have a human to connect with, to listen to their stories, and to approach them with no judgment and only curious, empathetic, and mindful listening. We believe this, alongside some integration practices (i.e., silence, solitude, sacred rest), will make a significant dent in the mental-wellness pandemic that the world is facing today. 

We call this journey the Paraclete Pathway, and you can see below how it attempts to bring wholeness to brokenness. It consists of SoulCare Connections and SoulCare Practices to help individuals live a more integrated life.  

We are facing a pandemic of not only mental illness (which is a severe problem) but also an even bigger one of mental wellness. We can’t simply solve the most immediate, surface-level problems, but we should address the overarching problem, which is a lack of integration in people’s souls. This will predominantly be done through increasing opportunities for human-to-human connection and helping people discover that who they become is all that truly matters, not what they do. 

However, the true secret is that once we understand who we are becoming, we can do things from a renewed vigor that is unmatched, and we can unlock creativity, energy, and solutions that we once only dreamed of. The truly well person—the truly integrated person—is something I hope all people have a chance to uncover this side of heaven. 

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