The rapid and creative responses churches made to address the COVID-19 pandemic created significant stresses on church leadership and laity both, one of the nation’s leading religion researchers said in a recent webinar. “The staggering amount of change that (occurred…
No surprise here: Study documents parental stress due to COVID
A new study reports higher levels of anxiety and depression among parents during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Stacy Cochran Nowell doesn’t need documentation to tell her that. “The spring was awful. It really was. It was incredibly difficult,” said Nowell,…
Barna compares pre-pandemic anxiety to today, and you can imagine the results
No doubt Americans faced a bevy of mental health and relationship challenges before the COVID-19 pandemic. But the coronavirus, mounting political drama and escalating racial tensions have dragged the quality of well-being and relationships even lower for lay people and…
Six lessons living with chronic illness has taught me about surviving a pandemic
For the last seven years, I’ve battled chronic pain and illness. A traumatic back injury in 2013 was only the beginning of what these years have held for me. Intense treatments and therapies with very slow results kept me hopeful…
Coronavirus presents a challenge to mental health as well
The physical effects of coronavirus aren’t the only cause for concern as churches — and the whole nation — navigate COVID-19. With much uncertainty over the virus itself, professionals report increased anxiety and stress due to health concerns, unemployment, social…
‘Mindful hypnotherapy’ cited as way to reduce stress and boost compassion
Baylor University researchers have discovered a new way to boost compassion and reduce stress by fusing mindfulness practice with hypnotherapy. An author of the five-year “mindful hypnotherapy” study conceded those terms may evoke images of exotic Eastern religions and magic…
Is it OK to feel how I’m feeling?
In this quarantine life and racial upheaval, it seems that everywhere we turn, someone is telling us how we should feel. Or rather how we shouldn’t feel what we are feeling. Are you afraid? Stop! Are you too calm? Stop!…
Listen to the teenagers: Things are not right
I work in public education, but I’m not a teacher, administrator, custodian, social worker or a member of the cafeteria staff. I’m something far stranger, or, according to at least one student I met during the course of my work…
How to survive in a time of coronavirus: Turn down the volume
The stress of living in an age of COVID-19 is revealing all of us to be more of who we have been. It is amplifying our personalities – for good or for ill. Normally hidden emotions now rise to the surface, and we are more easily laid bare.