Meditations: Religion as the Foundation for Mental Health

When it comes to mental health, I can’t help but notice a curious pattern: most of the habits now promoted by self-help gurus or by scientific research seem to have direct counterparts in religious tradition. Take gratitude journaling, for example, now a scientifically supported practice for improving well-being, but functionally, is it not almost identical to prayer? Instead of thanking God for your blessings, you now just jot them down in a notebook.

Or consider the growing awareness of how loneliness harms mental health. Research tell us that many people lose their social fabric after graduating from school, lacking a stable form of community. But isn’t that precisely the role church gatherings once served?

I could list examples endlessly, but the point is this: religion functioned as a operating system for mental health. It bundled all these “science-backed” behaviors into one cohesive framework that didn’t rely on every individual discovering them on their own through podcasts and research papers. Yes, some people will piece together these habits on their own. They can read the studies, implement the practices, and stay consistent. But most people don’t, and never will.

The old religious frameworks solved this by embedding those healthy habits into daily life through social convention and ritual. You didn’t have to decide to meditate or express gratitude; you just prayed when you were expected to. You didn’t have to schedule social connection, it was built into the calendar.

Would the average person today not be better off mentally and emotionally if they were “forced” by custom to step outside every day at noon to pray to the Sun God, and in the process received their 15 minutes of daily sunlight and gratitude as prescribed by Andrew Huberman.

Is it a coincidence that the most non-religious society in history is also the most mentally ill? Perhaps total freedom of belief and behavior has come at a psychological cost we’ve yet to fully understand.

Maybe the question isn’t whether religion was true, but whether it was useful. And if it was, then perhaps our modern age will have to rediscover the ritual skeleton that once kept us sane.