Fr. Paul Truebenbach is an orthodox priest at Sts. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In this video, which appears on YouTube from a channel called Roots of Orthodoxy, Fr. Paul was asked if he had advice for someone with anxiety and depression.
Even if you’re not a religious person, there’s something to be said for the four-step process:
- Exercise for 30 minutes (more on that below)
- “Go build, fix, or clean something”
- “Go pray” — again, for those who aren’t religious, substitute meditation — and the “Jesus prayer” recommended by Fr. Paul is simply “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
- Find something you can do for someone else.
The Exercise Habit
Spend any time on the internet and you’ll see that there are scores of theories on exercise: which ones are best, how much, how often, etc. It’s a lot to digest.
If you have the time for another brief video, here’s one where Chris Williamson interviews Dr. Rhonda Patrick — she’s someone who has appeared on a number of podcasts and hosts one of her own — where they discuss a number of exercise strategies; the one that I zeroed in on is the “Norwegian 4×4.”
Rhonda explains it here:
Sounds daunting, sure, and it may not be your thing.
Another approach: Walking. As detailed in this video, where Dr. Andrew Huberman interviews Dr. Casey Means.
“If walking were a pill, it would be the most impactful pill we have in modern medicine.”
The Upshot: Get Moving, Get Busy, Get Out of Your Own Head
We could talk about all of Fr. Paul’s points all day; but if you zero in on his main ideas, it all makes sense. Workout, then accomplish something by building or cleaning or fixing, then pray, then do something for someone else.
