Some stuff Rhys and I are practicing :
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♥️ Emotional Intelligence
One of my biggest lessons has been to focus less on pursuing happiness and to focus more on wholeness.
A really big part of that has meant getting more in touch with sadness, fear, anger, and all those other emotions I’m often averse to. I’ve learned quite a bit from cultures that are a lot more accustomed to processing these emotions rather than seeking distractions.
Many of us come from cultural backgrounds, spiritual communities, or other circles that tend to make us feel bad for feeling bad. It’s been helpful to think about why we were made with these emotions in the first place.
We experience fear in order to keep us safe. In primate studies where more fearful personalities were removed, survival rates were significantly lower. Sure, sometimes it can overreact to false or minor threats and can get in the way, but we’ve been given the gift of fear for a very important reason.
We experience anger when our sense of justice has been violated.
We experience sadness during a loss or an absence. It reminds us that the thing we’re mourning has value.
This doesn’t mean that things like justice, the reality of a threat, or what has value are determined by our feelings, and there are people whose growth path moves in the opposite direction of mine- not letting their feelings control them.
But understanding feelings as gifts that communicate to us can be a really helpful thing. I honestly think that if God didn’t want us to experience these feelings, then they wouldn’t have given them to us in the first place.
Honoring Every Emotion
