All Christians

This is chapter nine of the Quit Giving Up ebook. You can get the whole thing in our shop now!

As a counselor, one of the biggest difficulties clients present with at some point in their counseling is they hit resistance within themselves. Initially, they decided they wanted to stop feeling anxious and depressed or using drugs. After some hard work, maybe some failures, not finding immediate peace and relief, and the need for even more hard work, they become ambivalent about making more changes.

We continue to get more and more resources for churches and Christian counselors during this pandemic. This current webinar is a collaboration between Steve Grcevich of KeyMinistry.org and Kay Warren in partnership with the United States Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Partnership Center with future trainings to come this month.

Within the world of mental health, you need to always be learning, always growing, and always adapting or your and your agency will become obsolete. This world of coronavirus is a very clear view of this as many, if not most, counselors have not done telehealth, yet we really have very little option. Pastors who have resisted livestream now have to figure out how to do this on the fly or shut their doors.

But change is hard, yet necessary. The video below is by Donald Berwick, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), speaking at the 2001 IHI National Forum as the keynote that touches on this.

This is chapter eight of the Quit Giving Up ebook. You can get the whole thing in our shop now!

This is different than Day 5 when we had talked about positive thought placement. What if we did not need to change the thoughts we were having from negative to positive, but instead our natural inclination was to be positive?

Here’s an example of what I mean.

With the devastating impact of the coronavirus that has led to disruption of life for billions, life has changed for a very long time. This has led to conversation after conversation that uses the word “normal.”

• What will it take to get back to normal?
• Boeing won’t be returning to ‘normal’ anytime soon
• Antibody Tests: key to returning to normal?
• Trump coronavirus guidelines will get us back to normal and safeguard public health victories
• American resident of Wuhan says life getting back to normal: ‘The situation is greatly improving’

But as a counselor, I have a very strong opinion on this word ‘normal.’

[This article is part of a mindfulness series we have been writing about for years. Click the link to check out all of the other articles we have here.]

Finding good resources to help with counseling practices to improve mental health has grown easier over the last couple of years with phone applications like Headspace. Until recently, there were no Christian options for this. But let me introduce to you the Abide App.

The mission of Abide is states as “For the world to experience the peace of Christ through Biblical meditation.” Christian meditation is a practice from the Bible that has been refined for thousand of years. It connects and empowers our minds and hearts in Jesus. It helps us live with the peace and purpose of Christ.

At the beginning of the month, we shared 10 signs your emotionally exhausted or traumatized, noting that the coronavirus was already making people feel overwhelmed and frustrated. In two days, it became our most viewed article of the year. That was 2 weeks ago and I do not doubt people are still stressed and overwhelmed with self-isolation, negative effects of the coronavirus, and self-care.

Three weeks ago, we actually already talked about how to reduce your stress about the coronavirus, but since then, more things have changed in life and more people have taken time to share resources. Check these out:

This is chapter seven of the Quit Giving Up ebook. You can get the whole thing in our shop now!

It’s Saturday night and as the teaching pastor, you do not have anything. Not to forget your commitment this last all team meeting to the church tech team was you would have something to them well in advance so they could have everything ready to go. What happened? Now you have hours left to finish. Shouldn’t have scheduled all of those coffee shop meetings and extra speaking engagements. Oh, and that blog you tried to start? Now look what’s happened.

This is chapter six of the Quit Giving Up ebook. You can get the whole thing in our shop now!

Don’t focus on the goal? What are you talking about? A couple of my friends have found getting a project started in and of itself is crippling. These friends have different passions to go and change the world and made a commitment to do it. To them, this part is easy.

With a lot of states currently in quarantine or shelter-in-place, we may not be getting out of the house often, but the principles of this still apply. In the midst of the busyness of life, look for those God-given moments of respite and quiet. Find your rest and peace in Him.

I myself have a 30-minute drive home where I do not think about counseling. A good audiobook is exactly what helps me leave work at work and not bring home stress.

So for the next few minutes, let this Joni and Friends video be your time of rest and then go find your own.