Spiritual Wellbeing Is Mental Wellbeing More than 50% of Americans will experience a mental health crisis at some point in life. Unlike with the COVID virus, there is no vaccine to immunize us against mental illness. I know this from personal experience. As a college student and later as a young adult, I struggled with
Mental Health Matters It’s OK not to Be OK Right Now “Our pain isn’t always physical, our suffering isn’t always visible” is a motto I personally attest to hold true. As someone who lost my mother to suicide when I was young, I know all too well the pain and grief when a loved one
As we celebrate the Thanksgiving holidays, I’d like to share a personal mantra with you that I find to be true: In order to enjoy a future of abundance and happiness, you need to express gratitude for what you have in the present. Enjoy our “Tips for a Happy Thanksgiving” video For many of our
HEALING OUR NATION’S SOUL “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” Rumi If You’re Hurting, You’re Not Alone As Americans celebrate the Fourth of July and commemorate our nation’s independence, like many of us right now, my heart feels heavy. My soul hurts. While navigating through the array of conflicting emotions over the
Some years ago—I got an idea. I heard an old James Taylor song come on the radio: You Can Close Your Eyes. In the song, James’ phrase, “close your eyes,” is about trust. And that day I imagined that the singer of the song is Jesus, building community among his followers, singing to all of
With shared commitment to uphold the strength of the Spiritual Pillar and the Chapman spirit, The Fish Interfaith Center is pleased to launch CHAPMAN HOPE—a new platform of online resources and virtual services to provide spiritual grounding, calm, care, and compassion during the COVID-19 crisis. We offer these resources as we adjust to the challenges
Dear Friends of Chapman, The Fish Interfaith Center at Chapman University is pleased to introduce CHAPMAN HOPE! We have been working diligently in faith to create a platform for meditation, prayer, Chaplain support, and wellness resources for faculty, staff, students and our community, and support for our various spiritual and religious student groups. We are
We grieve the things we never even had, a friend once said to me after I had experienced a profound loss. Indeed, we grieve the future we were imagining, planning toward, or counting on. In normal times, we spend much of our time engaging in anticipatory causality, a term coined by Sara Ahmed, author of
Taking some exercise and walking on Chapman’s lovely (and very empty) campus today, I entered the Piazza. That’s when I noticed that the fountain appeared to be turned off. As I moved closer, I realized that it wasn’t completely off—there was still some water coming out of one of the pillars. Hmmm…interesting. Chapman makes a
A colleague recently said to me, It’s humbling to learn you’re not an essential worker, isn’t it? At times, we do feel powerless. So, what can we do in this unexpected time of COVID-19? I find the language of “call” to be helpful. We hear of people having a religious experience of being called –