Three to recover emotionally from COVID-19. Part 2 of a series.
I met a twinkling-eyed leading Christian psychologist who has helped people after traumatic incidents such as tsunamis, genocide and epidemics. Dr Jim Wilder PhD developed a model for everyday Christians to help one another, especially when they have experienced trauma, which is safe and easily learnt.
I talked to Jim about three key needs people have for emotional recovery / good mental health in this COVID-19 crisis. They are,
● Experience inner peace;
● Practice appreciation;
● Experience God.
The COVID-19 crisis has been devastating physically, as many have lost their lives or been physically damaged. The devastation is also experienced financially, as many have lost income, employment or their business; and emotionally, as we have dealt with holding and living with these effects. Add to that fear and isolation, and many of us are overwhelmed and have lost our peace.
The ability to remain calm or return to calm is the key building block of mental health. We believe Jesus is the Prince of Peace. This includes peace between us and God through atonement for sin, but there is more that God has to give us than that. As Christians, we have more to bring to the table than that. This brings us to the first of Wilder’s three essentials for emotional recovery and good mental health in this COVID-19 crisis, which is to experience inner peace.
As we reduce fear and anxiety and increase a sense of calm, then we function better. We can be a non-anxious presence and be a source of calm and hope for our communities. Communities calm as their key members calm and pass that on. As the airline industry says, leaders need to "put your oxygen mask on first." If you were on a plane, and the oxygen failed, you would want the pilot to put their oxygen mask on before they put yours on. If the pilot started wandering around the plane encouraging everyone but had no oxygen, you would tell him to get his mask on and navigate the plane out of the crisis.
The first thing we need is to put the oxygen mask of peace and calm on first before we try to help others. This raises the questions, first, whether we believe that getting to peace is possible? And second, what helps people get to peace? We look at these in the next two blogs.
Part 1 Helping people emotionally recover from COVID-19
Part 2 Three to recover emotionally
Part 4 How to calm down and find peace
#10
