Emotions are involuntary, like blinking your eyes when something comes at our face. Something happens and we have an emotional reaction. We then choose how to respond to the emotion we feel but the initial feeling is involuntary. Those involuntary emotions have messages for us.
We’re going to be angry and feel other emotions we don’t want to feel. The responsibility comes in how we respond because of how we feel. What do we choose to do with how we feel?
Choose how to respond
Step back from it a little bit and ask:
What am I feeling?
What emotions can I name?
Use an emotions word list or chart with faces and pictures if you need to.
Then ask:
What could these emotions do for me?
What are the messages?
Some of the messages will reveal lies or wounds that need to be worked through and healed. The message may be, this is new. I need to learn this. I don’t know what this looks like.
Use the information to make a wise choice
Is there someone you need to talk to?
Do you need s break?
Do you need to celebrate?
In the process of launching Mess to Majesty, I was feeling all kinds of emotions.
Excited – people were downloading it on Amazon, people were posting good things
Nervous – what if people didn’t really like it, what if they didn’t really like me?
Humbled – I didn’t do this by myself. It’s only because of God’s faithfulness and the people He brought alongside me that I could write a book much less get it to #1 on Amazon
Unsure – how do I celebrate? What does being excited look like? Feel like? How excited do I get?
Tired – this was a lot of work
Lost – what do I do now? What’s next?
Encouraged – women are being touched by my writing, relating to my stories
Like a failure and a fraud – sure the book made #1 but what about my house, meals for my family, the vegetables that need to be processed, the decluttering that begs to be done, the leadership issues for my Bible study?
What were the messages
I am still processing but here are a few.
I needed a break.
I needed to reprioritize before launching any other projects.
I have some insecurities and wounds to heal around my value and the services I offer.
I can learn to be excited and celebrate in my own way.
We blink our eyes when something is coming at our face, it’s involuntary. Often emotions hit us involuntarily, too. We are responsible for what we choose to do, what we choose to think about ourselves, about God, about our situations when those emotions hit.
Because it’s an involuntary thing do not take on the condemnation for feeling something. Partnering with a feeling can get us into trouble if we allow it to take us away from hope or take us away from the truth. Feeling the emotion itself is not something to be condemned about. Scripture tells to be angry and but sin not.
