Due to unforeseen technical issues we were unable to record our guest speaker – Dr Delroy Hall, however he has kindly provided us with his notes below.
Try to see this period of lockdown as a significant time for personal growth to be a more effective human being. What is suggested here is a guide which you can build on and use the time of lockdown to discern how you want to take your life forward. God, of course is supreme, but he has left us with responsibility in how we manage our lives.
Some points to help you during Covid 19
Four areas to consider
1. Get adequate rest. As ministers, we tend to go to bed late and get up early. This does not help our bodies recover. Medically and scientifically we know that sleep is vital to our total wellbeing.
2. Diet – I am not promoting becoming a vegan or vegetarian food, but we must eat sensibly. Try to incorporate raw food with each meal. I do so most days. Personally, I try to have at least one meal a day accompanied by raw food.
3. Exercise is a must. You do not have to do it daily, but between 3-4 times a week. If you would like to start jogging, try to do so in a park where grass is much kinder to your legs and joints. If you have not jogged for a while and you do not have any health conditions, here is a way to begin. Walk one minute and jog /slow run for 30 secs slowly building up over a few weeks until you can jog for five – ten minutes without much discomfort. You jog at a pace where you could hold a conversation.
4. Meditation – Here, I emphasise biblical meditation, as opposed to mindfulness which is all the craze at the moment. Meditation, contemplation, solitude, stillness and reflection are spiritual disciplines that have been practised by the church for over two thousand years. They are not new techniques. It is simply that the church has not taught these disciplines as a necessary part of a disciple’s or Christian life.
Prayer and meditation are known to have important effects on your bodies, right down to tissue level. For example, it lowers blood pressure, heart rate, slows down breathing, reduces stress levels and other benefits.
Under meditation I would include journalling as a spiritual discipline as well as it being used for a whole range of activities where we want to get a sense of what is taking place in our lives. Like meditation, it has huge benefits for our emotional, psychological and spiritual wellbeing.
Other activities
Other activities to help along during this time in dealing with anxiety. First, get a sheet of paper and draw a line down the centre and on one column, write, ‘What cannot I control?’ On the other column write, ‘What can I control?’ The column to focus on is the column which lists the things you have some control over. The Covid 19 is a strong reminder that none of us are in control as much as we like to think or believe we are.
The other option is to draw two circles, one contains all the things you are worried about and the other things that you cannot control. Next, are there any matters from each circle that overlap, if so, is it something you can do something about? If so, begin to work on what you can. The other matters you have no control over give it to God in prayer.
Open University is offering over 900 free online courses. Take this opportunity to have your appetite wet by learning something new outside of your regular sphere of learning. It is good to keep studying/learning. It is good for the mind and you never know what you might learn which can nurture you as a person and enhance your ministry.
Further resources
For an excellent book on journalling – Kathleen Adams – Journal to the Self
Paper Dialogue
https://www.themindfulword.org/2015/journal-dialogue-journaling-technique
Unsent letters
https://worthwrite.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/therapeutic-writing-six-reasons-why-the-unsent-letter-is-a-godsend/
Here are some resources on biblical Meditation
Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Meditating on the Word
Campbell McAlpine – The Practice of Biblical Meditation
Richard Foster – Celebration of Discipline. It is a classic text on spiritual disciplines
Sheila Pritchard – Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation