How Going to Church is the Most Therapeutic Thing You can do for Your Life

I am a counseling student. I am no expert, but I see a significant correlation between what my counseling textbooks advocate for and what the Body of Christ provides. Through my vast research for papers and many sleepless nights thundering through texts for class, I have concluded that going to church is essentially the most therapeutic thing you can do for your life outside of direct individual counseling. And even then ... I would recommend finding a faith based community.


1. The Church Body is Essentially the Best Support System You can find.
If you take a look at any basic intake form for therapy services there is going to be at least one question in regards to the client's support system. If there is no support system in place, the counselor will attempt to help the client develop one. Why is the support system so important? Because the rate of client success in therapy is much higher with a support system being behind the person in stress. The system essentially helps with continued therapy and does exactly what it's called... provide support.
The church, if it strives to adhere to the teachings of Jesus (which I'm assured they are), will provide a support system that is not only frequently present but is wide and diverse in life experiences. 
If you are struggling with something, odds are someone in your church can relate to a similar issue and help you walk through it. I encourage you then to heal and do the same for someone else in your same position. Sharing your story with another, is therapy in itself. 

2. The Teachings of the Bible Promote a Healthy Mentality and Lifestyle. 
If you have ever read the Bible through you know that from Genesis to Revelation, God is sharing with you His excellent love story for His people. Everything in the Bible is meant for instruction in living right. The ten commandments are guidelines that enforce a peaceful community lifestyle. The stories of the Old Testament bear warning to the disasters that encircle sinful choices, and the New Testament gives radical examples on how to endure past exceeding adversity. The Bible many times exclaims: Love! Forgive! Be Kind! Be Altruistic! Be Faithful! Have Joy! Don't Fear! Don't Worry! Trust! All of these attributes enforce a healthy life which means a healthy brain. No wonder Christians tend to live longer! (Koenig, 2008)

3. Worship is a Type of Meditation
Buckets of studies suggest that meditation is therapeutic and beneficial to the body (Goyal, et al., 2014). Worship has some of the same components you see in meditation. You are focusing on a message, you are attuning your brain to the melody (some use their own vocalizations aka... uhm*), and your body naturally relaxes with the process. So through you worshiping God, he is restoring you both mentally and physically. 

4. The Church is a Wealth of Resources
Most churches have their own roster of resources to meet individual needs. If that specific church doesn't have a food panty, Recovery Group, or any other foundation, chances are they know where you can find one! Churches, despite their denominational differences, understand that they serve a purpose to help the community and those in need, thus they create a beautiful circuit of resources. 

5. Being in Church Stimulates Growth
Stagnation is the worst thing you can do to yourself. People who are mentally healthy are constantly pursuing growth. They seek new information, and they continue to cut out the junk in their life, and foster growth in the healthy things in their life. Hearing a sermon twice a week, is at least two opportunities to gain insight and pursue change. The Church creates an environment that encourages change and stimulates growth. 

Do yourself a favor... go to church this Sunday. Make a change in your life for the better. 



Koenig, H. G. (2008). Medicine, religion and health: Where science and spiritualitymeet. West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation Press.

Goyal, M., Singh, S., Sibinga, E. M., Gould, N. F., Rowland-Seymour, A., Sharma, R., ... & Ranasinghe, P. D. (2014). Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA internal medicine, 174(3), 357-368.

The Myth of Millennial Entitlement

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Let me first begin by clarifying a few things:
1. I'm obviously biased considering I fall in to the category of a 'Millennial' at the ripe age of 24.
2. This is strictly opinion and observation, you are absolutely fine to have your own perspective on the matter.
3. This is purposed for discussion. Comments are welcomed as long as they do not contain crass verbiage or contains inappropriate content which does not contribute to the conversation.
4. I'm a psychology major, not an english major, please excuse the grammatical and spelling errors, should they appear. My heart goes out to you little Grammar Nazi's around the world.

So in laying that foundation, let me expound upon my title:

I have heard the phrase "Millennial Entitlement" so often that it has seemingly become accepted truth. This phrase is rather broad and is defined differently based on the source. I am going to lightly define it as a person who spent their adolescence and/or early adulthood in the 2000's. This meaning that they did most of their 'growing up' in a season of human existence where technology was developing at a rapid rate. This is the generation where personal emails became a common thing, cell phones were now being owned by the majority, social media made its debut, and video gaming developed extensively past a single joy stick. We became more connected than ever and yet also less connected. 

So going back to the entitlement thing, it is proposed that Millennials  are the most entitled generation thus far. I'm not sure who suggested this, but I believe it's fair to say this is pretty commonly accepted. I even opened up my textbook for my marriage and family counseling class this weekend and there was a section about this very topic. I keep hearing this, and hearing this from professors, leaders, media, and common folk on the street complaining and the whole time I'm just like... "What?"

Many fingers have been pointed. Ooh blame social media, televised media, internet, peer pressure, drugs, what have you... but my concern is not necessarily the 'what' because we have not addressed the 'why'. Why is this generation the poster child for entitlement? I would like some factual support for that and not just easily-fabricated statistics.

My husband likes to watch these videos on youtube (doesn't that just sound uber millennial) where people act ridiculous and it gets caught on camera. Most of the time it repulses me, but one evening my ADD got the best of me and I leaned over his shoulder to watch the nonsense. I watched a video of a middle aged woman flip out in a McDonald's over not wanting mustard on her burger and receiving mustard on her burger. This lady was losing her ever-loving mind. Then right after was another video where a beefy older man gets out of his vehicle at a stop light and tries to beat out the window of the person driving behind him. After that a crazed man chewed out a gas station clerk for what I could only understand as his frustration of not having available the right brand of cigarettes in supply. It was disgusting. There were videos of young folks, but also many videos of not-so-young folks and they were all screaming "I want", "you did this to me", "I deserve", and so on... a.k.a. "I'm entitled to..." It appears to me this notion of entitlement is not just an exclusive problem of Millennials, but really a people problem all together.

I used to work retail. It got me through college but I hated it with a passion. Southern shoppers are the worst and I left many days feeling that my faith in humanity was shot. One particular day I was in a great mood. It had been an easy day and I had a manageable flow in my department. About 15 minutes until closing just after they had made the announcement over the intercom a woman (I'd say was about in her 50's) came rolling up to my counter with a cart loaded with clothing items. I said my normal counter mannerisms and began to organize her items to be rang up and bagged. About half way through this process she mentions she has a coupon. "Wonderful, may I see it please, to ring in the system?" She looked around, "it's in the sales ad' she said with a huff. "Well mam, if you are referring to the ad that ran on Sunday, I'm sorry but that sale is already over, it ended on Wednesday." She looked taken aback, "Well no one told me! Just give me another coupon." I wasn't sure what to say, we didn't have any coupons running at the time, certainly none of which I would have ready hand at the counter. "I'm sorry but I don't have one available, are you a store credit card member? You can still receive points for your purchase." She slammed her hand on the counter, looked me dead in the eye and said "You just won't give me the coupon cause you're racist." ............. seriously? "Mam I can assure you that I am not, and that I am not purposely withholding a discount from you...." without even letting me finish she knew which card to play "I want to speak to your manager". At this point I'm fuming, "Gladly! I'll call her now." I call my manger over who tries to speak with the woman. I walked away in to my storage room to try and calm down. I was shaking with anger. I watched through the door window and the woman kept pointing her finger my way, screaming profanities, and then had a toddler-appropriate, temper-tantrum, melt down in front of God and everyone at the front doors. After she stormed out I walked out to meet my manager and help her pick up the clothes thrown about on the floor next to the over turned cart. My manager was empathetic towards me, but ultimately the store patron got exactly what she wanted. She left with an exclusive 20% off coupon that she applied toward her meager purchase that day and for use at another time. I couldn't believe it. I am a behaviorist at heart, and that is exactly what you do to reinforce bad behavior.... but hey, she was 'entitled' to that coupon, so she deserved it.

Everyone wants things, not just Millennials.  We would all love free stuff with no penalty. We all think we deserve good things in our life and we all want those things for ourselves. It's not just a millennial concept in my opinion, it is simply learned behavior. It is animalistic survival coming out. It is Freud's ID at it's core. Our dark human nature taking over our morals, values, and beliefs. It is not necessarily  limited to one people group. I heard a blog one day t about "What Millennials Want in their Jobs". Every item listed sounded pleasant, but ultimately I was thinking "Who wouldn't want those things if offered?"

And even more so, if you did want to pin this mentality to the Millennials alone, look at it this way; as Isaac Newton put it, "We are standing on the shoulders of giants before us." As Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs would suggest, because the generations before us has worked diligently to make living life easier and most of our basic needs are met, we are now able to pursue self-actualization more than ever before. That's a wonderful thing, and a huge accomplishment for the human race. We can make food grow better and all year round, we can turn garbage in to shelter and fuel, we have better communication and easier access to forming new relationships, we have better life expectancy and higher education levels than before! That's excellent! So maybe Millennials appear to be more entitled because they are finally at a point in history where they can focus on the point of the pyramid more than maybe the generations before them. This may not necessarily be a bad thing.

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However, let me make it clear that the "entitled" behavior is NOT appropriate. We don't deserve anything, we are only blessed. An attitude of gratitude will get you much farther than one born out of selfishness. I'm only pointing out that it is improbable that Millennials are the only generation to be marked with being entitled. Every generation will complain about the next, even we twenty-somthings complain about the kids coming up under us. "Back in my day..." will forever be a thing. Millennial Entitlement is a myth. People Entitlement is very much real. Let's all just try to be thankful for what we do have rather than claiming ownership of things we do not. The outcome of gratitude and hard work will always be success.

Thoughts?