I Use Documentaries to Cure Myself from Organized Religion

Where is God when the Sanctuary Breaks you? I have an anxious relationship with organized religion. I grew up in a West-Indian Seventh Day Adventist household and that came with a lot of baggage. Over the years of my life, I had to unlearn a lot of judgmental practices, open my heart and find God for myself. Within my house it was important that you went to church on Saturdays (sabbath observance). A day of rest that honestly, did not provide rest for me. A place that was supposed to help me relax, gave me anxiety attacks almost every week. I realized that the church I grew up in did not share the same values as I did, so when I transferred my membership to a church that did, I needed to slowly define who God was for me. On this search, once a month I would take a break from religious activities, flipped on Netflix and watch documentaries. I found a way to adhere to the spiritual practices in a way that would not trigger me I remembered how much I loved documentaries. Learning about people’s livelihoods, and how culture affects interpersonal interactions helped me appreciate the world around me more. It began with nature documentaries and seeing how wildlife gets affected by pollutants; watching the world gradually shift from normalcy. Truthfully, unless we’re consistently reading articles about climate change, we don’t understand the full extent as to how much our planet is being destroyed. Reflecting on the Beauty We Lost: Our Planet

Our Planet was the first nature documen…