05/12/2026
Photo-texts grabbed from an Instagram page, but the insights are grounded in sound psychosocial empirical research.
The pictured post frames the insights through the lens of one thing Winston Churchill did to combat his depressive episodes: he laid bricks.
The broader point: psychosocial challenges in the mind can be alleviated, in part, by engaging the body. For we are fearfully, wonderfully, and holistically made; body, mind, and spirit, all.
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So if you're a thinker, find ways also to be a doer.
Embrace a single, focused, physical task or activity. It focuses and quiets the mind, re-engages the whole body, and sets you back in balance.
And at the end, you have a tangible thing to show for it--yet another antidote for the searching, looping, ruminating, depressed, or anxious mind.
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As for me, I have a Masters and a Ph.D. Insatiably curious and inquisitive by nature. And I think, a lot.
Plus, I serve chiefly in a vocation that, next to counselors, begets the highest rates of depression of any other role in the nation, and often produces little to no tangible and observable fruit.
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So, how do I cope, in part? How do I turn down the volume in my brain and freely release intangible emotions--both from myself and others?
I don't lay bricks, but I do fix cars.
It helps; and further, repair work frees me from thrusting my own need for measureable task completion and visible results upon those I serve in ministry.
Said differently: I serve people, not widgets; and so, I fix widgets, that I can more freely serve people. It helps them, and it helps me.
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Person and people, boundaried but together; and body, mind, and spirit working independently yet holistically. It's God's design. And it's good.
So don't be a brick wall, but do consider laying one. It may help you, and others.
The Lord be with you.
