Healing Hearts, Transforming Mindsets.

By Keene Calipara

We recently came across a report from World Health Organization on Prevention and Management of Mental Health Conditions in the Philippines: The Case for Investment (2021). In a way, the report epitomizes our call to heal hearts and transform mindsets, especially here in our country.

We all know that our mental health may be affected by multiple factors: biological, psychological, social, and even environmental. With people experiencing lack, relationship issues, abuse, and even our country's susceptibility to natural disasters, these make us vulnerable to mental health conditions. Among the many mental health conditions, depression and anxiety are common in the Philippines. The report indicated that 3.3% of the country's population or equivalent to 3.3 million had cases of depressive disorders, while 3.1% of the population or 3 million cases of anxiety disorders were recorded in 2017. The report also mentioned a substantial increase in the suicide rate. One can surmise that the cases of mental health conditions have swollen because of the recent pandemic and disasters (both natural and man-made). The report also indicated a study on people's perception about mental health conditions. And yes, a lot needs to be done to bring awareness and transformation of mindsets pertaining to mental health.

One can pose a question though. Which should come first - healing of hearts or transforming of mindsets? When we talk about mental health issues, these are not just the conditions, emotions, or behaviors. But we are talking about people regardless of the circumstances they are dealing with. So, we say we heal hearts first to transform mindsets.

We can heal hearts by showing love to people by catching - and not just by knowing - what's in their hearts. This could have been love that turned into hate, a dream turned into frustration, hope turned into fear, peace turned into chaos, truths overwhelmed by lies, or even purposes lost during transitions. Once these have been caught, transformation may occur when an individual realizes that who we see is a person above all of the circumstances and the issues are literally just backdrops. Yes! We are very much capable of loving! Thus, we can be channels of healing hearts - therefore, enabling transformation of mindsets.

1 John 4:19 (ESV) " We love because he first loved us."