Sharing Experiences (and lots of links)

Today I taught a lesson for Relief Society (the women's group at my church). I was asked to base my lesson on the talk "Come, Join With Us" given by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf in October of 2013. I love to teach (which is good, since that's my full time gig), and I particularly love teaching at church. We have the best discussions, and I had more than one extraordinary moment while teaching today.

A couple highlights:

First, President Uchtdorf's talk starts out describing some of the many services members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints provide. The question is raised: "Why would anyone want to join such a church?" One of the reasons people might choose to be part of our church is because of the many opportunities to put your faith into practice.  We discussed this as a class, both how it feels to come into a church that's so volunteer-service oriented and how that service affects us.

What's interesting to me is that, as we talked about service we render, the sisters pointed out how we are enriched, enlightened, uplifted and refined as serve. As I was listening to their comments I remembered something I had read about depression: volunteering combats depression. Think about it - you're giving of yourself to others. Just as accomplishing any goal can give you an increased sense of self-worth, by providing service to others we are blessed ourselves. (Mosiah 2:24 comes to mind: ...he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you...)

If you're not convinced, how about some expert explanation? 

Helping others kindles happiness, as many studies have demonstrated. When researchers at the London School of Economics examined the relationship between volunteering and measures of happiness in a large group of American adults, they found the more people volunteered, the happier they were, according to a study in Social Science and Medicine. Compared with people who never volunteered, the odds of being “very happy” rose 7% among those who volunteer monthly and 12% for people who volunteer every two to four weeks. Among weekly volunteers, 16% felt very happy—a hike in happiness comparable to having an income of $75,000–$100,000 versus $20,000, say the researchers. Giving time to religious organizations had the greatest impact.
(Adapted with permission from Simple Changes, Big Rewards: A Practical, Easy Guide for Healthy, Happy Living, a special health report published by Harvard Health Publications.)

So, the take away here is:
a) If you're depressed, find a way to volunteer!
b) If you don't know where/how to start volunteering, try www.justserve.org
c) If you want to read more about the effect of volunteering on psychological health, just run a search on "volunteering and depression"


My second big highlight came from our discussion of the second half of President Uchtdorf's talk, when he discusses some of the reasons why people might leave and questions they might raise before coming back.  He said:

Some might say, “I don’t think I could live up to your standards.”All the more reason to come! The Church is designed to nourish the imperfect, the struggling, and the exhausted. It is filled with people who desire with all their heart to keep the commandments, even if they haven’t mastered them yet.

A few women opened up about difficult times in their lives when they struggled with depression or other obstacles. The really interesting part, however, was when each of them shared that once they started talking with other people they found out that many other people are experiencing the same feelings.  For whatever weird reason, we tend to think we are the only ones who can't get it together.  This is NOT TRUE.

Lesson (re)learned:
a) If you are depressed and feel worse when you compare yourself to others, stop comparing yourself to other people. We spend too much time comparing our weaknesses to others' strengths.
b) If you have a hard time eliminating the mental comparisons, try talking to some of those people to whom you're comparing yourself. You'd be surprised how many of them feel or have felt the same way you do.
c) Remember that the race is not against each other - the race is against ourselves. As long as we are making progress, be it great or small, we're still moving forward! So if things seem bleak, ask God to help you move forward, AND (this has been key for me), ask Him to help you notice it when you do so.  This is what happened for me when I was on my bike a couple days ago, and I absolutely cannot express how wonderful it felt to realize and truly feel that I am doing better, than I am moving forward, and that there is most definitely light at the end of the tunnel.

I hope you can feel that way too, and if you're not feeling it now, don't give up!!!