In natural laws, the Law of Labor precedes that of Progress. Undoubtedly, man progresses by working. However, one cannot forget the meaning of work for the Spirits defined as any useful occupation.

That is, by occupying his time in a useful way, man works and progress comes along. There is no magic pass. Work, then progress. Planting, then harvesting.

Over time, by the way, man's work has been changing. Before, in primitive times, work served to maintain life, to look for food, to protect oneself from natural weather. Nothing, therefore, very sophisticated. As, however, man worked and progressed, he created new paradigms, needs and attributions for himself.

The incessant quest to live in a better world has led man to develop intelligence, improve his intellect, consequently build technologies and this has opened new horizons which, in turn, have further expanded man's vision, but not without a side effect, or apparently collateral, which created a challenge to be overcome: making work, progress and mental health go together.

We have already, then, added the mental health component to thinking about work and progress.

We have, in short, a feeding and feedback circuit, man works, progresses, creates needs, works harder to solve these needs and continues in this almost endless circuit of work and progress, having, still, in the middle of this path to think about how to keep your mental health up to date.

Many people mentally succumb when they evaluate work and progress at surface. The key that opens the doors of balance can be found in the Spirits' definition of work, which changes the whole configuration. By the way, I must repeat the concept of work provided by the Spirits: work is every useful occupation, so that a wider field opens up for what work is, being something far beyond the professional activity that guarantees the sustenance of the physical body.

These are the challenges to be overcome and the responsibility lies with man himself to create environments in which work, progress and mental health are together.

There is another position of the Spirits that we must take into account in order to keep our mental health up to date: the limit of work. What, then, is the limit of work? Moreover, the Spirits answer that it is the limit of their forces be they physical or psychic. What does this mean? It means that we need, in an exercise of self-knowledge, to understand the limit of our strength so that we do not stretch our limits too much and end up compromising our physical and mental health.

If we want, in fact, we can even call the work of rest, since, if we consider rest as a useful occupation, because it refreshes the organic and soul forces, we are, in a broad sense, working while resting, thus becoming more able to have a life with much more quality.

I have seen, throughout the many visits I have made to Spiritist centers, people complaining of physical and mental fatigue, at the same time that leaders complain about the lack of volunteers and workers in general.

Realize that ideas make a connection. At the same time that people complain of tiredness, managers report that they are losing employees, especially after the pandemic caused by Covid 19.

Some say that the advent of the pandemic pushed workers away because spiritist centers closed their doors. I have my doubts about that. Perhaps the pandemic was just the starting point for a deeper reflection by Spiritist workers with regard to the activities they carry out at home and the meaning of it all.

It is necessary to make sense to proceed with an activity. The time away provided a distance and, naturally, produced the reflection: - What is this work providing me in terms of growth?

Of course, there are cases and cases, but I try, here, to raise some hypotheses for our reflections.

The workers' tiredness cannot be ignored, since tiredness signals a limit of strength, just as the importance of workers in the processes and activities of the spiritist center cannot be ignored.

How to reconcile these issues between the tiredness of the workers and the activities of the spiritist center?

Chatting with several workers, they say that life itself brings an immense amount of pressure. Professional activity, time with the family, physical needs, new times, urban mobility, security, the opportunity of on-line activities and many other points collaborate for the removal of workers from the activities of the spiritist center.

Now, how can we say that workers are wrong, given the arguments exposed?  Of course there are others, but considering the arguments, how to say they are wrong?

How to bring them back to face-to-face activities at the Spiritist Center?

Some colleagues, spiritist leaders, bet on the old fear with phrases like:

“Spirituality is seeing your neglect of work.”

“You must work, my brother, for Christ is counting on you.”

We could cite several phrases said by Spiritist leaders to make workers continue with face-to-face activities.

However, let us be honest: this type of argument no longer works, so much so that, in the pause of the pandemic, many workers stopped attending spiritist centers and never returned.

My friends, directors in Spiritist Centers, do not misunderstand me. I see your side and agree that there are activities that need to be maintained and not enough workers. However, let us agree that it is necessary to change the approach with the workers.

For example, I saw a spiritist worker informing that he could only attend an activity fortnightly and he was roughly told by the spiritist leader that fortnightly was not possible and either he came weekly or he did not need to turn up again.

Of course, I know the importance of discipline and the principles of constancy that some activities require. However, let us think about what the Spirits say; “the limit of work is that of their strength”. Therefore, while some can dedicate 1 hour a fortnight, others can dedicate 2 hours a week, and so, with the hands we have available and with good will, we adapt to our reality, designing our tasks and building good, quality work, but with lightness and above all constancy, the basis of good institutions.

It is a vast subject, immense even for us to reflect on. I do not intend to exhaust the subject. My intention is to lift the veil so that we can think together about the reasons why workers have moved away from face-to-face activities at the spiritist center. I believe that we will necessarily go through the issue involving the mental health of workers.

Could we think about this issue together?