Thudding heartbeat? Beads of sweat forming on your brow? Grinding your teeth and unable to think straight? It must be time for the round table on the new season of Celebrity Traitors. Stress does funny things to us, and celebrities are not immune.
The unwaveringly positive presenter Alison Hammond left This Morning live last Friday clutching her chest and breathing rapidly. The next day, she updated her social media in her usual cheery manner to say that, although she feared she was having a heart attack, doctors suspected that it was actually a panic attack. Hammond (who is surely soon to be announced as Britain’s latest National treasure), said, “it felt very real to me. I’m new to panic attacks, so I need to learn more about it.”
“Our bodies, mind and spirit are one.”
In a straw poll of friends and family I was given a huge list of the physical symptoms that people attributed to stress or poor mental health. Hair loss, palpitations, migraines, blurred vision, worsening eczema, even blisters. The truth is, our mental health is actually physical. And when we are under times of stress, depression or anxiety – don’t we know it!
Hammond’s physical symptoms felt “very real”, because they were.
Theologian, and friend of Proximity, Cris Rogers told me that he has concerns about the way Western theology has separated out mind, body and soul, which harks back to some Greek philosophical approaches. He said “The Hebrew understanding seems to me to offer something rather different. It presents us as whole human beings, where the physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual dimensions of our lives are deeply intertwined.”
As someone who has suffered from chronic anxiety at points in my adult life, it’s a hard relate. My symptoms ranged from feeling sick and having migraines, to shaking in my arms and legs, and these were deeply connected to my spiritual and emotional experiences at the time.
As Cris said, “What happens to our bodies affects our minds and spirits, just as our spiritual lives can affect our emotional and physical wellbeing. We are not three separate things inhabiting the same person.”
Mental Health Week gives us all chance to pause, and to consider our approach to wellbeing and faith. Cris argues that we should see ourselves, and those we love and serve, as whole people. When we do, he says, “we are less likely to spiritualise mental illness, reduce it to a purely psychological issue or overlook the impact of physical circumstances.”
“How do we care for ourselves, and those around us, as whole people.”
And this is the heart of the Proximity Selah resources by Corin Pilling. How do we care for ourselves, and those around us, as whole people. And can we instigate healthy boundaries and practices as well as recognise the warning signs that we need to act on? How are we to model God’s vision for people with integrated lives who, as Cris said, “are caught up in their relationship with God, one another and creation”?
After her dash from the sofa on This Morning Alison Hammond commented, “Looks like I had a massive panic attack on live TV, the shame of it.” No shame Alison, just a moment for us all to remember that our bodies, mind and spirit are one. To thrive as a human requires care, healthy practices and attentiveness to our whole person, and to our awesome God.
Proximity’s Selah Resources can be found on our Wellbeing pages.