During our ‘Healthy Mind, Healthy Soul, Week’ at Compass we talked about our minds and how to look after them. We looked at different parts of the brain (using play doh), discovered that it’s pretty complicated and that we should look after it. So we played table tennis – apparently scientifically proven to be the best sport for your brain (who knew?) – and looked at some optical illusions. After our exercises we did siloheuttes of our heads and talked about the kind of things we think about and how what we think about affects how we feel. We learned that in the Bible there is this brilliant verse in Philipians 4:6-9 that tells us not to be anxious about anything but to pray, say thank you to God and think about things that are good, noble and true…..(not a bad recipe for good mental health for all of us!)
And finally we talked about a practical way to look after our minds – when we are online. Above is one of our Mind Your Mind Mouse Mats (made brilliantly by Charlie!) We wrote this Bible verse on them
“Hold on to what is good, reject what is harmful.” (1 Thessalonians 5: 21-22)
We talked about the internet and how easy it is to find wonderful things on the internet and to find harmful things in it too. God wants us to focus on things that are good for us and help us grow in healthy ways. Our mouse mats are to remind us to keep our minds safe as we explore online. I am using a rather fabulous one made for me by one of our volunteers as I write this….(Thank you to the fantastic Messy Church Resources where we got this idea from.)
Phew…. that was a busy one……
Bankfoot Church Centre 