If you need mental health crisis support, please contact your local mental health services, your GP, or telephone 111 or the emergency services.

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Spirituality, recovery and wellbeing

Exploring spirituality, recovery and wellbeing

Mental health is the emotional and spiritual resilience that can help us to enjoy life and to survive pain, disappointment and sadness. It is a positive sense of wellbeing and an underlying belief in one’s own worth, and the dignity and worth of others.

There are many different approaches towards mental health recovery and wellbeing in mental health services. Though the models are distinct they all break the recovery journey into different sections. Though these models don’t include spirituality as a specic step, spirituality could be considered to be an integral part of all these models.

Spirituality and the CHIME Factors

Spirituality can also be incorporated or understood within the CHIME factors. Expand the sections below for information about each factor.

Connectedness
  • Feeling connected to others with similar experiences. Having friends and relationships; being connected to the local community.
  • Our spiritual or religious beliefs can enable us to feel more connected to others and the world around us.

Hope
  • Believing and having hope that things can get better. Hearing stories from others who have recovered.
  • Our spiritual beliefs can provide a way to develop a sense of hope.

Identity
  • Having an identity beyond diagnosis.
  • Our spiritual or religious beliefs can give us a sense of identity.

Meaning
  • Focusing on individual goals, different roles; activities that provide purpose and pleasure.
  • Developing a personal understanding of your experience.
  • Spirituality and religion can be a way for some people to find meaning in their life and their experiences.

Empowerment
  • Being able to make decisions in your life. Developing knowledge and self-management.
  • Having a strong sense of your own spirituality can help your confidence grow enabling you to feel more empowered.
A person sat in a window looking at the moon.


If you want to find out more about the CHIME factors, our Recovery: The New Me course has information about these. You can find this in the courses section of this website.

Personal experience

Important:
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Please note: this story is a lived experience account that discusses the following topics: suicidal ideation, bi-polar disorder, physical violence, sexual abuse and admission to a psychiatric hospital.

In the following personal experience on our website channel, Joe discusses his story and the meaning of spirituality according to him. You can access this story via the following button:

Go to Joe’s story

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