Find a New Path to Whole-Person Healing with Amen WHOLE-4

Are you feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, disconnected, or discouraged? Are you struggling to find your purpose or longing for spiritual grounding? Are you feeling hopeless about your health and how to improve it?

If you answered yes to one or all of these questions, you’re not alone. Many people are grappling with these very same feelings.

We have good news.

Across the country, something powerful is happening. It’s a movement designed to address these very feelings and concerns so many Americans have about their health, life meaning, and happiness.

Right now, in more than 80 faith-based communities, churches and ministries, people are coming together around a shared conviction: getting healthy is not just a personal goal, it’s an act of worship.

The movement is called Amen WHOLE-4.

What is Amen WHOLE-4?

Rooted in Scripture and informed by decades of brain science, Amen WHOLE-4 is a six-session, faith-based transformational journey designed to help people rewire their brains and renew their lives. It addresses four areas of health: body, mind, relationships, and spirit.

It’s not another short-term health program or Bible study. It’s a blueprint for lifelong change.

At its core, Amen WHOLE-4 recognizes a truth many people feel but can’t always name:
We don’t just have a health crisis in our nation; we have a whole-person crisis.

People are struggling to find meaning and purpose in life. Chronic illness is rising. Mental health struggles are everywhere. Relationships are strained. Dr. Daniel Amen, the founder of Amen University, created Amen WHOLE-4 to meet this moment, by addressing the whole person, the way God designed us.

Here, we will highlight some of the unique concepts covered in the first session of the program.

The Four Circles of WHOLE-4

Amen WHOLE-4 focuses on what Dr. Amen calls the Four Circles of life:

• Brain & Body – Caring for the physical brain and body that power everything we do
• Mind – Renewing thought patterns, healing trauma, and building hope
• Relationships – Strengthening connection and healing community
• Spirit – Reconnecting to God’s purpose and living with meaning

These are foundational to the entire program.

Getting Healthy Is Worship: The Foundation for Total Transformation

To kick off the program, Amen WHOLE-4 brings faith and brain health together with this simple truth:

God designed your brain to change. And when your brain changes, your life can change.

The program is not about rules or restrictions. Participants are invited to see their health (physical, mental, relational, and spiritual) not as a burden, but as a sacred responsibility.

The program is rooted in Romans 12:1–2 - “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

This opening session anchors the program in a life-changing idea: Offering our bodies and renewing our minds is not separate from worship, it is worship.

Naming the Crisis Without Shame

If you cannot name the problem, there is no answer. The first step of the six-session program is acknowledging that you may be struggling with the same problems that so many Americans are having trouble with, such as:

• Chronic diseases that are largely preventable
• Rising rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide
• Increasing loneliness despite constant digital connection
• A growing loss of meaning, purpose, and spiritual grounding

You don’t need to feel ashamed or alone. Recognizing the problem is the foundation for hope. Once the problem is clearly seen, a solution becomes possible.

Thankfully, the solution isn’t willpower alone. It’s healing the four circles together, in this new community, with God’s help.

A New Way to See Mental Health

One of the most freeing insights of the first week is what we know to be true about mental health: Many “mental health” struggles are actually brain health issues.

When participants see mental health issues as a brain health problem, it removes shame and replaces it with compassion and possibility.

Importantly, participants are introduced to the acronym BRIGHT MINDS.

Each letter represents a science-based way of understanding the 11 key risk factors that affect brain health, from sleep and inflammation to trauma, stress, and blood sugar.

For example, the first letters of the acronym B-R-I represent the following areas of brain health:

B – Blood flow (reduced circulation to the brain)

R – Retirement/Aging (normal aging factors that can be optimized)

I – Inflammation (from illness, diet, stress, or toxins)

Instead of guessing, people learn to measure what matters and take practical steps forward.

Intention Changes Everything

Session one also incorporates a simple but essential principle: You have to tell your brain what you want.

Through an exercise called the One Page Miracle, participants begin clarifying what they want most in their lives. That includes what they desire across relationships, work, health, finances, and faith. This clarity becomes a compass for daily decisions, helping align actions with purpose.

Rather than focusing on what’s wrong, the emphasis is on vision, direction, and hope.

Small Steps. Big Change.

The Amen WHOLE-4 was created knowing that lasting change takes time and that transformation doesn’t happen overnight. Thus, it is a doable program that never asks for perfection.

Session one introduces the idea of Tiny Habits: small, doable actions that compound over time. Participants learn to ask simple daily questions like:

• Is this good for my brain or bad for it, and does it honor my Creator?
• Does this choice fit the goals I have for my life?

These practices may seem small, but they begin rewiring the brain and reshaping daily life.

Healing Happens Together

Finally, in the first meeting, participants learn something essential: we don’t heal alone.

Health is contagious. So is hope. Participants are encouraged to choose accountability partners, engage honestly in group discussions, and invite others into the journey. The church becomes what it was always meant to be: a healing community.

A True New Beginning

Lastly, session one of Amen WHOLE-4 is not about fixing everything at once. It’s about saying yes.

Yes to healing.
Yes to growth.
Yes to becoming who God created you to be.

As this program continues to roll out across faith communities nationwide, lives are already being changed, one decision, one habit, one renewed thought at a time.

And this is just the beginning.

If you’d like to learn more, visit Amen WHOLE-4. While the program is currently limited to select faith communities, it will be available to more faith-based organizations in the near future. If you’re interested, talk to the leaders of your church or organization to find out if you can bring Amen WHOLE-4 to your faith community.