Hi there, my name is Mrs. Marks.

And today, I'm going to be your religious education teacher.

And our lesson today is called Possible Psychological Benefits of Religion, and this falls part of our Psychology of Religion unit of work.

And before we start, I want you to be aware that we will be discussing some things that can impact people's mental health and how religion can relate to this.

So when you're ready, let's go.

So by the end of the lesson today, you'll be able to explain how religious belief and practises could support someone's mental health and give different perspectives on this.

So let's start with our keywords.

And our keywords for today are higher power, mental health, mindfulness, prayer, and secular.

Higher power refers to a spirit or being, such as God that has great power and can affect nature and the lives of people.

Mental health refers to a state of wellbeing that enables people to cope with the stresses of life and contribute to their community.

Mindfulness refers to the practise of maintaining a moment by moment awareness of our thoughts.

Prayer refers to the act or ceremony of speaking to and communicating with God, or a god or a higher power.

And secular means not having any connection with religion or spiritual things.

So look out for those today.

So, our lesson today will have two parts, and the first part of the lesson is going to be exploring how can religion benefit mental health? And the second part of the lesson is going to analyse the benefits of religion for mental health.

So, our first part of the lesson then, exploring how can religion benefit mental health.

I want you to think about the activities I'm gonna show you and what they might all have in common.

Writing a gratitude journal, going for a walk, learning a new skill, connecting with people, getting a good night's sleep, and eating healthily and drinking water.

What could connect these six things? You're going to pause the video and have a think.

You can talk to your partner or you can talk to me.

Off you go.

Some great ideas there and yet lots of them are to do with being healthy.

But did you know all six of these have been linked to helping mental health and wellbeing? So they're great things to know about, things that can help improve our health and wellbeing.

But along with all the different ways to support mental health, we just saw and wellbeing, some studies have linked religion to benefit in mental health as well.

So let's have a look at some of the things they've linked.

So, studies have linked mental health and a healthy lifestyle, but also that religion in some ways encourages a healthy lifestyle for some people.

Other studies have looked at how the act of giving thanks and gratitude can really help benefit mental health, and that is also something which can be encouraged in many religions.

Other studies have looked at how being part of a caring community or feeling like you're connected and part of a caring community can be really beneficial for mental health, and that is something which often features in religions as well.

Another thing that studies have found is that having a sense of purpose or meaning in your life can really help with mental health, and that, again, is something which religions have been shown to help with.

And finally, other studies have focused on different actions that people might do, which can support their mental health, and one of those is regular prayer.

So some studies have shown that that can actually help mental health, too.

But some of these are beliefs and some of them are practises.

What could be some of the beliefs which are linked in religion to mental health benefits? Can you think of any? Pause the video and have a think.

You can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Lots of great ideas there for different religious beliefs that could link to mental health.

Here we have some examples such as the beliefs that there is a higher power greater than anything on earth.

And here, I have an image of a hurricane happening, and perhaps you can think of how sometimes as humans we can feel a bit powerless in the face of these big forces that happen in nature.

So, a belief that there's something bigger and greater than that, that's sort of managing that, and in charge of it can be very reassuring for people.

So perhaps that could be a belief that it's linked to mental health benefits.

There's other beliefs, such as there's a goal or a purpose to life on Earth.

Things were designed or made in a certain way for a certain reason.

There's something that we are working towards as humans and there's a reason why the whole universe is here in the first place.

That can be very beneficial for people within a religion to hold that belief.

And finally, another belief that could be reassuring and comforting to people in times of difficulty with their mental health could be that there is some life beyond death.

So that could be for us, if people are facing that themselves or it could be if they're missing a loved one.

It could be very comforting to them to think that that person is continuing on somewhere else.

So perhaps that can be a belief that can be of benefit for somebody's mental health.

Time for a quick check.

Is this true or false? Some studies have linked religious beliefs and practises to mental health benefits.

Yes, you're right, it's true.

There are studies that have linked religious beliefs and practises to mental health benefits.

So let's focus in on one of those beliefs we were just talking about, this belief in a higher power, and remember from our keywords, that could be a spirit or a being, it could be God, it could be a force.

Something that's greater than yourself and is managing and sort of in control of this big world that we have.

How could that be of benefit to someone's mental health? Well, I'm gonna give you an example now.

This is Carl Jung and he was a psychotherapist.

So he's quite important in lots of the developments we have in therapy and psychology.

And he worked with people who had great struggles with their mental health.

He did, too.

And he worked with people who had big, big struggles with their mental health and he was their therapist trying to help them overcome some of these difficulties that they were facing.

And he found that many of his patients found it useful and helpful to believe in a higher power that was greater than themselves in order to overcome these issues with their mental health.

So he described it as, you know, having to tap into something bigger than yourself.

When you feel overwhelmed or when you feel like you can't change what it is that's happening to do with your mental health, he said that's when you can reach out to something greater and bigger than yourself and draw on that strength.

And he really believed that was an important part of their recovery.

Let's look at an example.

So, one of his patients was called Rowland Hazard, and here's a picture of him here.

He was one of Jung's patients.

He was actually really successful American businessman.

He was a successful man over in America but was an alcoholic.

And he was desperate to stop drinking but found that he couldn't, and he was trying to find all different ways of being able to stop drinking.

And he just found that he couldn't overcome that addiction.

In 1931, he reached out to Carl Jung, because he knew that he was helping people in a similar situation who couldn't overcome things that they wanted to.

So, in 1931, he was treated by Carl Jung who said he needed to have an experience of a higher power in order to overcome his addictions.

So Carl Jung speaks about people leading to have a connection to the higher power to really feel this sense that there is a higher power that's going to be on your side and help you overcome this thing, or he talks about it being a transformative moment that somebody can have by connecting with this higher power.

I wonder if it worked.

Rowland did manage to stop drinking alcohol, and he said it was this higher power that helped him to do this.

And he passed on what he'd learned from Jung to other people who were suffering from alcoholism.

So, he knew other people who were suffering and he passed on this information and said to them, "Look, I've found that this has actually really helped me." And finding that strength from a higher power, something greater than yourself, became a really important part of an organisation that started soon after this.

So, the organisation is Alcoholics Anonymous.

I don't know if you've heard of them.

They're not the only organisation that's there to help people, but this was part of the story of how this organisation came about.

And you can see the image here, it's a chip that people get for however long they've managed to not drink and stay sober.

And it's a way to, you know, celebrate their achievement.

And a part of the process of Alcoholics Anonymous is finding something greater and bigger than yourself for you to rely on, and sort of acknowledging that sometimes it's really hard to do on our own, and we can lean on something bigger and greater than ourselves.

Now, some people continue to find this helpful today.

Not all organisations that help people with addictions do say you have to have a higher power, but this is an example of one organisation that does do this and some people in that organisation do find that really helpful.

Let's do a quick check.

Which statement is most accurate about higher power from these three? Everyone finds connecting with a higher power has helped 'em overcome addictions.

No one has found that connecting with a higher power has helped them overcome addictions.

Or some people have found that connecting with a higher power has helped them overcome addictions.

Which one's right? Yes, that's right, it's C.

Some people have found that connecting with a higher power has helped them overcome addictions.

Not everybody, and not nobody.

So there are other organisations out there that don't rely on a higher power to help people, but it is an important part of the Alcoholics Anonymous process.

So, we've looked at some beliefs which can have a positive benefit for people's mental health, but what about some of the practises or actions that people might take? So, according to the National Health Service who we're gonna call the NHS in the UK, there are some actions that people can take to support their mental health.

I wonder if you know what some of those actions are.

Take a moment to pause and have a think about this.

You can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

So, some of them might be from what we said at the start of the lesson, we've got connecting with other people, being physically active, learning new skills, giving to other people, and paying attention to the moment.

So these are five things that the National Health Service recommend as ways of improving your mental health.

Sometimes, they're called the five ways to wellbeing and you may be aware of them as different ideas for how people can sort of support their own mental health.

Now, how many of those do you think could connect to different religious practises? Take a moment to think about this.

Pause the video and speak to the person next to you or you can tell me.

Yes, there's some great ideas there.

Lots of these things could connect to different religious practises.

Let's have a think about that.

So, here's some examples of different practises in religions that could support someone's mental health, and these are just simple examples that we can use to think about this.

Of course, in religions, people do things in different ways and not everyone partakes in all the activities, but we're going to think about some of the ways that different religions might encourage those different actions to happen.

So, first of all here, I've got the example of giving to others.

That's a very important part of lots of the world's religions that you would have studies.

And here I've got an example of some Sikh men who, as part of Sikhi, are doing seva, which is service to others and volunteering.

It's a really important part of that religion and you can see how that connects to the NHS advice about giving to others, as well as feeling connected with others, too.

Secondly, I've got here an example of some Buddhists meditating together.

And that idea of prayer and meditation, how could that relate to what the NHS advice was earlier? Do you remember it said about living in the moment and paying attention to the moment? Perhaps prayer and meditation can form a part of that, too.

Taking a moment to pause and reflect, and stay in the moment.

That is one way that religious practises could also encourage some of those actions that the NHS has suggested.

And finally, I've got here being part of a community.

And here, I've got a baby having an infant baptism or a christening as part of a Christian Church.

And that really is a symbol, isn't it? A welcoming that baby into that community and that they will be brought up part of this family of the church as well as their own family.

And lots of religions have ways of encouraging community, too.

So could that be a way of doing some of the actions that the NHS suggested? So, is there any evidence that shows that link between these religious activities and mental health? We're going to look at three pieces of evidence from different universities where they've studied this.

Firstly, Baylor University in the United States of America found that people who prayed regularly to a loving and protective God were less likely to have problems with anxiety.

So, perhaps that's connected to what we said about a belief in a higher power that's in charge of things or can affect things in the world, made them feel less anxious, less worried.

Perhaps they felt more protected by this idea of a God that was looking out for them.

Secondly, we got University College in London in the United Kingdom.

They found that the more regularly people attended a religious service, the higher mental being they reported, to people self-reported how often they went to a service and self-reported how they felt their mental wellbeing was, and they found that there was a correlation between the two.

So was that perhaps to do with being connected to other people? Perhaps it was do with some of the activities that were happening in that service.

And finally, Sheffield Hallam University in the UK found that personal prayer rather than attending religious services, had a positive effect on people's mental health.

So here, we've got a slight difference.

This piece of research found that it was more about that personal individual connection between the person and God that had that positive influence on somebody rather than attending religious services.

And that piece of research also looked into whether those people questioned and sort of challenged their faith from time to time and how that made them feel.

And it actually found that those people who asked questions about their faith, it didn't mean they had a lower mental health.

It actually helped their mental health, too.

So it's something about that personal connection with their God or their faith that was benefiting them.

Well, let's have a look at another example here.

You are going to meet Rasool and he's a Shi'a Muslim, and as part of his religious practise, he prays throughout the day each day, and he's going to explain to us why he thinks this helps his mental health.

Rasool says, "I pray three times each day.

The routine gives me time to pause and think.

By reflecting on something bigger than myself, it helps me gain perspective on whatever's going on.

It helps me pay attention to the moment during prayer." So, Rasool is a Shi'a Muslim.

So he says five different prayers but at three times each day, and this gives him this sense of routine each time he's saying he's connecting to something bigger than himself and that helps him consider whatever's going on in his life in that moment, perhaps in a different way.

And then it also has this comment here about paying attention to the moment during prayer.

And we come back to that again of this idea of mindfulness being a way of thinking about each moment, and really being still and sitting in that moment.

Perhaps that's connected, too.

Could you think of any other reasons why prayer might help someone with their mental health? Pause the video and have a think.

You could talk to the person next to you or you can talk to me.

Well done.

Lots of brilliant ideas there for all the reasons why prayer could help somebody with their mental health.

So, time for another check.

What activity do Rasool say he does that two universities also found to be beneficial to mental health? That's right, it was prayer.

So, let's do a task to see what we've learned.

Sophia, Sam, and Jun are discussing how religion could benefit mental health.

For each statement, give a reason or a piece of evidence to support it.

So, Sophia says, "Belief in a higher power can support mental health." Sam says, "Practises such as regular meditation can support mental health." And Jun says, "Attending a regular religious service can support mental health." What reason or piece of could you give for each of them to support it? Pause the video, off you go, and I'll see what you've written in a moment.

Well done, everybody.

Some great work there.

So, let's see what we've written.

Your answers may look something like this.

When Sophia said, "Belief in a higher power can support mental health." You could have written, "Carl Jung found this helped one of his patients who was an alcoholic." When Sam says, "Practises such as regular meditation can support mental health." You might have said, "They can help the person pay attention to the moment." And when Jun says, "Attending a regular religious service can support mental health." You might have said, "This was shown in a study by University College London." Well done.

So now, to part two of the lesson, analysing the benefits of religion for mental health.

So, whilst many of those religious beliefs and practises may help with mental health, many of those activities can happen without a religious basis.

Activities and ideas that are not connected to religion are known as secular.

And there are many secular activities that can support mental health.

So, can you think of some of those activities that we saw people doing as part of religion being done in a way that's not religious but done in a secular way? Have a think, pause the video.

You could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, yes, there are many aspects, perhaps not all, of those different activities which can be done in a secular way.

Lucas and Laura are discussing secular activities which could support mental health here.

So, Lucas says, "Lots of my friends are using mindfulness as a way to help with their mental health and that's not always religious." Maybe you've heard of mindfulness as an activity that encourages us to sort of think about the moment and be very, very present in each moment, and it can really help with mental health.

And that doesn't have to be done in a religious way, does it? It can be done in a secular way.

And Laura says, "I love playing music and I find the challenge of learning a new instrument makes me feel really happy and content." And remember that advice from the NHS around learning new skills was a really important thing for how we can support our mental health.

And that doesn't have to be done in a religious way.

It could be done in a secular way.

Let's do a quick check.

The term secular means things that are connected to religion and spiritual matters.

Is that true or false? You're right, yes, it's false.

But why? The word secular means things that are not connected to religion or spiritual matters.

So that's why that statement was false.

So, let's look at some of these practises that could be done in a secular way in a bit more detail.

So, many studies have shown that practising mindfulness can help with the person's mental health, as I said earlier, and whilst this may have its roots in Hindu and Buddhist practises, it's widely practised in secular settings today.

So, it might be practised in other religions as well, but also, it can be done in a completely secular way with nothing to do with a God, or a spirit, or a higher power.

Secondly, studies have also shown that volunteering time to help others can improve someone's mental health.

So we've got our image here of a band that are there to raise money and awareness about breast cancer there in France.

Now, don't they look like they're connected and being part of something together? And that can really help with mental health as well as giving up your time for something that has a good goal and a good purpose.

Those things can all be done in a secular way.

Yes, we've seen that religions might encourage that, but it can be done in a secular way, too.

So, it can help people to feel they have a common goal shared with others and that they're contributing to society.

So, volunteering is often encouraged in religions, but it can also be done in a secular way.

Giving thanks to a higher power we saw is an important part of many religious practises.

So yes, if you're giving thanks to a god or gods, then that would be considered as religious.

Gratitude journaling is similar as it encourages people to be thankful for what they have.

So, gratitude journaling is often done where people will write down perhaps at the end of the day or quite regularly things they're grateful for, things they're they're happy that they have, and they want to take a moment to thank.

And that could be for other people, or it could just be thanking life itself, or even in a religious way, that could be thanking a higher power for providing that thing for you.

And in recent years, gratitude journaling has become popular as a way to improve mental health and can be practised as a secular activity.

So yes, it could be linked to religious activities, but it could also be done in a secular way, too.

So, what's the evidence that could show this link between these actions that can be done in a secular way and mental health? So like we saw with religious activities, has there been evidence to show that there can be this link? Well, first of all, the National Volunteer survey in the UK in 2019 found that 77% of people, so that's over three quarters of the people, had improved their mental health since they started volunteering.

And there's lots of reasons why that might be.

That sense of being connected to others, that you're giving to others, that there's a goal and a purpose, the idea of being part of a community.

And that can all be done in a secular way whilst it may be encouraged in some religions.

The Universities of Bath and Southampton together found in 2024 that just 10 minutes of mindfulness a day could improve people's mental health.

And like we said earlier, that could be done as part of a religious practise, but it can also be done in a secular way.

And finally, Wright State University in the USA in 2010 found that writing a gratitude journal improved people's wellbeing and helped people feel happier.

So that doesn't have to be done in a religious way, although it can, it can be done in a secular way.

And their study found that people that did this regularly had improved wellbeing and they felt happier.

So, as we're analysing the benefits of religion for mental health in this part of the lesson, we can start to think about if religion offers something different to mental health than the sort of secular activities that we've been thinking about.

Is there something special that religion can offer towards benefiting mental health or not? Well, as in this part of the lesson, we're analysing the benefits of religion for mental health.

We can start to think about whether there's something special or unique about some of these religious beliefs and practises for mental health which you would not necessarily get through secular ways, and start to make a judgement ourselves on what we think.

So, let's see what Sam and Jacob think about this, 'cause they're discussing this link between religion and mental health.

Sam says, "I think secular ways to help mental health are really good, but religion can help in a unique way for some people." And Jacob says, "I think the benefits for mental health that come from religion can also be found through secular ways." So here, we have Sam who says, yes, the secular ways are great, but Sam thinks there's something else.

There's something different, unique about what some of these religious belief and practises can do to help some people's mental health.

Whereas Jacob thinks, well, perhaps all the benefits that you could get from those religious activities and religious beliefs could also be found in secular ways.

So, do you agree with Sam or Jacob on this, or have your own view? Take a moment to think about this.

You can pause the video and think to yourself, or you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Off you go.

Ultimately, as we've seen with the different studies, there is some studies that seem to show that religion can offer something unique and special and other studies that seem to suggest it doesn't.

Time for another check.

Which of these two statements are correct? Volunteering is always a religious activity, it's never a secular activity.

Studies have shown that volunteering, gratitude journaling, mindfulness improve mental health.

Religious practises often involve giving thanks to a higher power.

And mindfulness has always been a secular practise and not linked to any religions.

Which two of those are correct? Yes, you're right, it was B and C.

There are studies that have shown that those things can improve mental health in both secular and religious ways.

And religious practises often do involve giving thanks to a higher power, but volunteering can be secular as well as religious as can mindfulness.

So, let's do another task to see what we've learned.

Here, we've got Sam and Jacob's views that they gave us earlier about the relationship between religion and mental health.

For each view, you're going to give a piece of evidence which could support it.

And you might like to use the sentence stem, "This is because.

." You don't have to.

So Sam said, if you remember, "I think secular ways to help mental health are really good, but religion can help in a unique way for some people." And Jacob says, "I think the benefits for mental health that come from religion can also be found through secular ways." So, what could be a reason for each of those views? Pause the video and off you go.

Well done.

Some really good thinking there.

I asked you to look at the statements from Sam and Jacob, and give a reason in support for why they had their views.

So, let's see what you've written.

Sam said, "I think secular ways to help mental health are really good, but religion can help in a unique way for some people." And you could have put a reason perhaps around a higher power, because that's something you're not likely to have in a secular approach.

So, you could have said something like this, "This is because religion can involve the support of a higher power that is not likely in a secular approach." And Jacob said, "I think the benefits for mental health that come from religion can also be found through secular ways." So, he's saying that anything that can be a benefit from those religious practises, you could also do if you were doing it in a secular way.

Let's see what you could have written.

"This is because studies show that secular mindfulness, volunteering, and gratitude journaling have benefits for mental health." So all those three things which could be done in secular way can also benefit mental health.

Well done for all your hard work today.

I've really enjoyed learning about this with you.

Let's just recap what we've done before we go.

So, there are different religious beliefs and practises which have been shown to benefit some people's mental health.

Carl Jung is an example of someone who encouraged people to connect to a higher power to help with their mental health.

There are secular activities which can also support mental health and there are different perspectives on the relationship between religion and mental health.

So, well done again for your hard work and I'll see you again next time.

Bye!.