Our
purpose in this course is to consider personal wellness. Since it is a psychology course, most of our focus will be on mental and emotional wellness, and especially on spiritual wellness.
But as we begin, it is very
important for us to think of "wellness" in its broadest context. We want to think in terms of being and becoming "well." That suggests that we need an integrative study of wellness, one that integrates the mind, body,
and spirit. We are interested in what is called "holistic" health, or wellness.
Unfortunately, the term "holistic" has become identified with the New Age movement. I say "unfortunately" because the Bible has just as
much to say about balanced wellness as any New Age guru or teaching.
After all, didn't the Apostle John bless his readers with the hope that "you would prosper, even as your soul prospers"? (III John 2) In other
words, I hope that "you," your personal, human physical and mental self, would prosper in direct correlation with the prosperity of your "soul," or your spiritual self.
Also, of course, the Bible says that God
considers our bodies the "Temple of the Holy Spirit." We have every right and obligation to be concerned with the health and welfare, or wellness, of that Temple.
To drive the point in with a little more detail,
specifically, we want to be concerned with God's plan for our personal health and welfare, or our "wellness." So as we consider mental, emotional, and even physical wellness, we will want to fix our eyes directly on
God's purpose for us as created beings and as His children.
We can, in essence, boil wellness down to a description of the way we take care of ourselves. The ways that we get and maintain a "well" state of being make
up the framework of wellness, and the framework of this course.
It is very important to understand the matter of "getting" and "maintaining" a state of being we would call "well." Because we live in a fallen world, we
are surrounded and encroached upon by forces that would deteriorate our wellness: age, disease, accident, violence, turmoil, and probably other issues too numerous to list.
Thankfully, God also provides us with tools
and knowledge that help keep us well, and help us recover when we suffer. This recovery—often called "adjustment" in Psychology circles—will be an important topic for us over the coming six weeks.
We will explore many
of those tools during our time together. We will mix specific, practical ideas and techniques with theory and concepts. Our objective is to understand God's perspective on wellness, so that we can integrate the habits
and practices of excellence into our lives.
Specifically, in this course we will address the following key topics (from the course objectives):
We will study the relationship of the mind, the body, and the soul (or
the "heart" as the Bible sometimes calls it). This crucial connection contributes enormously to wellness and we want to study it carefully.
We will analyze approaches for dealing with anxiety, stress, and crisis. We
will consider various treatments offered by secular Psychology and compare them to God's remedies.
We will examine what our emotions mean. We will especially observe our emotions as they happen in us and as we react
to them.
In that same vein, we will become aware of the role personal responsibility plays in each person's life. We will consider each person's responsibility for his or her choices, attitudes and feelings.
We will
consider the role and purpose of a family in God's order for wellness. Key topics will include effective parenting, roles and relationships and challenges to the modern family.
We will especially look into the role
meaning and purpose play in living a healthy and productive life.
These issues make up the foundation of wellness. They capture the essence of the state of being we call "well." Taken from God's perspective, they are
also the issues that enrich and enliven our lives before Him.
