Does Gratitude Help Our Mental Health? ft. Stephen - E8 Anxious Faith

If you’re someone who has been around the mental health space for a bit, whether just from reading or hearing things, or dealing with it yourself, you’ve probably come across the concept of gratitude. It’s something that counsellors and psychologists suggest as a tool to help us when we’re struggling with our mental health, and you only have to walk into any stationery or bookstore to see how popular it has become - there’s gratitude journals *everywhere*. And that’s for a reason - gratitude is actually something that can help our mental health.
But what about as Christians? Does the kind of gratitude that helps adjust our mindset apply to us as well? Should we be following these suggestions of cultivating a mindset of gratitude by just listing what we’re thankful for, or is there more to gratitude when faith is mixed in?
This episode we’re speaking with Stephen Unwin, who is actually part of the Anxious Faith team, and an editor for Our Daily Bread Ministries. But in his spare time, such as it is, he’s also studying his PhD around the concept of Gratitude and Gift in the Christian Life, and as such we thought he’d be great to speak to.
Now while Stephen hasn’t had to deal with any mental health challenges such as anxiety or depression, as someone studying Gratitude he’s gotten into the research on what gratitude is, and how it can actually help ourselves mentally.
In the first half we’ll talk about what gratitude is, and what it looks like in a faith-based context, as well as looking at some examples in the bible. But after the break we’ll look more about how gratitude can be lived out and practiced not just during the good times, but even when we’re struggling or suffering - and how it can help us during those times, including some ideas as to how we can begin to do that, which might be helpful. So make sure you hang around.
But for now, let’s kick off our chat with Stephen.
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