dailydatewithgod

One of the gems of the human experience are the feelings that we have.  There is a lot of discussion psychologically as well as neurologically as to what feelings are and what they mean.  The bottom line is that they carry a lot of energy.  We can have such intense feelings that we create a physical response–a tense body from anger, tears, a lifting of the heart from joy.  I used to run from intense feelings.  Being a sensitive person I was overwhelmed as a kid and I didn’t have a way of processing them so I would shut down.  I would judge them as right or wrong and never let myself actually feel them.  Later on I needed a substance to help keep them shut down.  It’s funny how when you let ideas go unchecked they grow.  In the years since stepping out from behind the curtain of using food and sugar to keep me checked out, it has been a process of coming to peace with feelings.  The feelings themselves I have come to see are not right or wrong, it is my thoughts about my feelings that I need to face.  When I notice myself acting in a default mode of judgment about feelings or anything for that matter, it is an invitation to go deeper and see where it is coming from.  A feeling is an indication of my thinking.  While, at first, I might be hesitant to take a closer look, when I do so with God by my side the excavation isn’t so terrifying.  I have learned that no matter what I find–good or bad, right or wrong, I can then make a choice to keep or let go.  Then the idea no longer has to run me because I hand the artifact to God and say, “Hey, what do you think I should do with this?  Put it in a museum or my pocket?”  My prayer for us today is that we be open to doing a little excavation of the things in our lives (a feeling, an idea, a reaction, etc.) that carry the most energy and determine with God whether it belongs in a museum or our pocket.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen