Loneliness is such a common struggle and it even intrudes unexpectedly into quality relationships and supportive Christian community. Unfortunately, feelings of loneliness are often misinterpreted as an ungodly or unnecessary nuisance to be avoided at all costs, rather than being understood as an inevitable reality to be embraced for spiritual growth. In fact, the choice to embrace our loneliness can be a privileged invitation to echo the larger purposes of God.
By: Dave Ragsdale, Vice President of Counseling & Team Training
Every Christian leader can practice healthy self care with 3 simple strategies that involve: A Priority, A Plan and People.
1. Make Self Care a top Priority
2. Create a Good Self Care Plan
3. Enlist the People that will support your plan.
I am not going to give you 10 steps to practice self care. This is not a “How To” workshop because most self care is plain common sense. You need to exercise, see your doctor, spend quiet time with your family and friends, set better boundaries with work, plan that vacation, take that Sabbatical, have some fun on a regular basis, there’s a 1001 ways to do self care.
What I want to do is inspire you to do self care if you’re not. You might be practicing self care, but maybe you need to be more intentional. Take some time to think about how you can apply the three principles I listed to your own context. Do you have a good suggestion for other leaders? Maybe, the best question is to ask how you are getting intentional about planning self care… and then actually following through… post some good suggestions or resources you would point other Christian leaders to use.
Stay tuned to learn more about principle #1 (make self care a priority) in the next post.
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