Take Good Care of Yourself: Week 2
It’s important to take care of ourselves because God asks people in Genesis to care for His creation, and this includes the taking care of the pinnacle of His creation—people, including ourselves. This means that it honors God when we take time to manage our lives. When we don’t, we run the risk of being over-run with worries and sadness.
This is especially true in the current situation with COVID-19. Some experts are saying that our world is facing an additional pandemic—a “panic pandemic”—brought on by virtual “panic sneezes” that are spreading fear like a contagion every time someone posts a fearful comment about the virus online.
In light of this, we must make special effort to take care of ourselves. It honors God to do so and it prepares us to love our neighbors during a time when those around us are fearful. Remember, we have the message of the hope of the gospel (even though we, ourselves, may have fears), and people need to hear this message of hope. So let’s care for ourselves, not only for our own benefit, but to ready ourselves to share hope with others.
Last week, I encouraged you to take out a postcard and make goals to take care of your spiritual, relational, mental/emotional, and physical well-being. Let’s do this again this week. Below are some ideas, but feel free to come up with some on your own!
- Spiritual well-being: “The Church is not a building…”: Stay connected to your church family and youth group in creative ways. Many churches are offering online services and zoom youth groups. If you aren’t already involved in a youth group, this would be a great time to start.
- Relational well-being: “Hugs, high-fives, etc”: This may sound strange, but actually physical touch is proven to increase over-all well-being. While we have to be careful about physical contact during the time of the virus, we need physical touch from the people in our households. Even petting our dogs and cats can increase our well-being.
- Mental well-being: “Drawing Challenge”: I’m not an artist, but drawing is a great way to engage your mind (and in my case to laugh at my attempts). I’m in a “daily drawing challenge” group text, using a website that gives step-by-step instructions for simple drawings. As long as you don’t take it too seriously, this is a fun way to engage a different part of your mind and temporarily get your thoughts off any present worries.
- Physical well-being: “Sunlight”: Each morning, open the blinds and let the sunlight pour into your bedroom and home. Go outside and let the sun shine over you. Sunlight does amazing things for your well-being, including increasing serotonin levels, improving sleep, and absorbing Vitamin D—all of which positively impact your mood. Combine this with exercise and you’ll reap even more benefits.
Together we will get through this and come out stronger on the other side!
Take good care of yourself!
Mrs. Kirkland
Counselor