LESSONS FROM CENTENARIANS
Lessons from the oldest people in the world may teach clergy to be both happy and healthy. What if you, as a clergy, can build some practices into your life that centenarians around the world use and make yourself happier and healthier? Allow me to apply lessons from an April 5, 2015 Parade Magazine article by Ginny Graves. She reports on the research of Dan Buetner who spent a decade studying the healthiest, longest living people in the world.
Over the next several blogs, I will show how Buetner’s conclusions about longevity can be integrated into your practice of ministry. You may not live to be a hundred, but these practices can make your life healthier and more enjoyable.
ACTIVE PEOPLE ARE HAPPIER
The National Institutes of Health 2012 study found that structured exercises can add 4.5 years to your life. What if, in addition to such exercises, you built some health giving activity into a variety of aspects of your ministry? Think through your daily activities and consider where some brief physical activity can be inserted. Consider which of these activities could be built into a week of ministry.
- Climb the steps when you visit someone in the hospital.
- Deliberately choose a parking space that requires some walking.
- Choose to park and walk a block before meeting a friend for lunch.
- Place frequently used reference books on a high shelf, stretch to reach them.
- If you play an instrument, commit to 15 minutes of play in the afternoon.
- If you draw, get up from desk and move to drawing pad for 15 minutes.
- Take an interior walk around your building while reflecting on the ministry that takes place there.
- Take an exterior walk around your building and reflect on the impact of this large symbol of the faith. What message does it send?
- Use your sanctuary like a labyrinth and pause at a variety of places to pray for the people who often sit there.
- Take a walk around the block and use various buildings or sights to act as symbols to pause at for prayer like a labyrinth.
A SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY OF THE PHYSICAL
Invite some colleagues to join you in brainstorming how other natural physical activity can be integrated into your day. Then join once a month to reflect together on the impact of this intentional activity.
Consider the theological implications of integrating some intentional physical activity into your daily life. Then preach a sermon or two on the faith implications and invite people to join you in a commitment to care for the body that is the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:19)
