Embracing Our Emotions
Feelings are not right or wrong they are just something that wells up in each of us begging for us to admit them. Yet in life I have witnessed people who think they are signs of weakness or sin. This truly bothers me as I know how devastating it is for us to stuff all our feelings into a bottle. What happens after years and years of this is that eventually a person erupts and a volcano of emotions ensue that cause pain to other people. Also, this tendency leads to unhealthiness inside of us. We don't allow ourselves to get deep with our friends and family because we don't want to show our weakness so instead we suffer internally with maladies like: depression, anxiety, bitterness, resentment, anger etc. These things can take over our lives like cancer and cause us to lose our sensitivity and care for others.
Grief brought up a magnitude of emotions that left me ravaged with pain. I felt everything from: abandonment, depression, discouragement, despair, fatigue, heartache, hopelessness, sadness, panic attacks, shock, hurt, sorrow, loneliness, worry . . . Many feelings would wash over me. Imagine if I had stuffed all these feelings inside of me. It would have been terrible and I would've been eaten alive by these enormous feelings. They would have consumed me. Instead I learned to take every second as they came. I'd cry when a song brought up painful thoughts. In the middle of church tears would often course down my cheeks and I allowed it because I knew I needed to cry in order to heal. Immense feelings still wash over me from time to time. I've learned to allow them to. Often I will: journal, pray, take a walk, retreat into nature or analyze why I am feeling the way I am. These are healthy ways to manage the pent up feelings that arise occasionally. Life taught me to embrace these moments and find opportunities to work through these feelings.
Denial is when we pretend these feelings, emotions or pain do not exist in our life. We stuff them all down and refuse to process them. This causes more hurt than help in our lives. May we be people willing to face these deep thoughts that consume our hearts and minds. May we learn to accept the feelings that we have. Don't run from them. Embrace them. Cry if you need to. Write, pray, tease out what you are feeling and why you feel that way. Talk to friends, read the Bible, join a support group. It's not a weakness to do these things. These are healthy ways of dealing with pain. May we become healthy people so God can use us in mighty ways.