Are You Weary? Part II

The last post encouraged us to check in with our people, our teams, and help them find healthy rhythms of service—not out of obligation but to encourage flourishing. Part of that entails regularly engaging with resilience practices.

You can help yourself and your people—individually and collectively to:

Notice when you are worrying. Ruminating—revisiting past, present, or future concerns over and over and over again—is not productive nor healthy. The first step is to become aware when you’re doing it…and to use other practices to rein it in.

Some of those practices include:

Regular prayer and meditation. Conversation with God—speaking and listening and hearing—matters. Taking worries to the Lord as a regular practice calms the mind and heart and invites Him and His Presence and Power into their situations. Consistent prayer unhooks us from the rumination and leaves the concerns at His feet, acknowledging His care, mercy, and sovereignty.

Daily exercise—keeping moving, getting outside, breathing fresh air—all have been proven to help us reset—physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

Practicing gratitude—being intentional about thankfulness, daily, has been demonstrated to increase our well-being and stop rumination in its tracks.

Being present—sometimes called “mindfulness”, this simply means stopping to become aware of your surroundings, your breathing, your own physical presence in a space, helping disconnect (at least for a moment or more) you from plaguing concerns about past, present, and future.

Being intentional about what you consume in terms of media helps immeasurably with mind-set. Be judicious about what you listen to and watch. Is it helpful? Are you learning and growing as a result? Or, is it adding to your anxiety? Is it feeding your fears?

Seeking to remain in community. When we are feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, or anxious, our natural tendency is to isolate ourselves from others—usually thinking that we are the only ones struggling. However, being with people (healthy ones) is an antidote to the loneliness and fear. We are created to be in relationship—with God and with others.

If you search online for “resilience”, you will find over 800 million results. They speak to the necessity of needing it and building it. How are you developing necessary resilience now (for later) and how are you helping your people do the same?

Additional Resources:

Inviting People into the Adventure and Growth of Serving

Most People Volunteer Because They Were Asked!

Shirley Giles Davis, author of the God. Gifts. You. Your Unique Calling and Design workbook, Your Unique Design Class Guide, Your Unique Design Facilitator Guide, and Gifts-Calling-Purpose blog, is a consultant, coach, facilitator who has worked with faith-based organizations, nonprofit agencies, and leaders in a diversity of fields for over 30 years. She has also been Equipping Ministries Director at her church since 1999.

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© Photo by Shirley Giles Davis, all rights reserved.