Your Emotional Health Depends on These Three Truths
“Some of the greatest battles will be fought within the silent chambers of your own soul.” — Ezra Taft Benson
There’s another thing as certain as death and taxes — emotions.
Even the most emotionally tough people experience grief, sadness, anger, etc. It’s useless hiding from your emotions. They’ll find you.
If you wish to be emotionally healthy, you must internalize these three truths:
1) Emotions are transient
2) Emotions are trying to tell you something
3) Emotions are tricky
Emotions Are Transient
Unlike your mother-in-law, emotions don’t come to stay. They’ll be here one moment and gone the next… and that’s a good thing.
Those tears you’re crying right now will disappear with time. By the same token, happiness will also fade with time. **So if your life goal is to feel happy all the time, you’re setting yourself
up for certain failure.**
Because of their transitory nature, there’s no need to run from your emotions. They’ll go away on their own, so allow yourself to feel them. There’s no need to shun them as lepers in biblical times, mainly because…
Your Emotions are Trying to Tell You Something
Our happiness-obsessed society makes us believe any emotion other than joy must be disposed of. Feeling sad? Hide it with a huge smile, and don’t let anyone know you’re committing the sin of unhappiness.
But have you looked closely at your emotions?
We’re often too busy trying to get rid of them to fully analyze them.
Negative emotions are the equivalent of physical pain. Sure, physical pain sucks, but it was thanks to that terrible stomachache that I finally went to the doctor, where they found that my appendix was beginning to gangrene. They removed it and I lived happily ever after. If we felt no physical pain, many of us would’ve been dead long ago.
The same is true of your negative emotions. They’re warning you that something isn’t right. But unless you sit and chat with them for a while, you’ll never find out what your mind is trying to tell you.
Don’t be afraid of your emotions. Let them deliver the message they’ve brought forth. Don’t let others shame you for feeling anything other than happiness.
Remember: Emotions are not responsible for our pain and suffering. It’s our interpretation of those emotions that causes us to suffer, as well as the guilt we’re made to feel for experiencing non-joyful emotions.
Emotions are Tricky Bastards
Have you noticed that when you’re sad you can only think sad thoughts or remember sad events?
Or when you’re feeling worthless, notice how you can only recall events in your life that made you feel worthless.
Emotions can act like magnets that attract thoughts, feelings, and ideas on the same wave. It’s nearly impossible to think happy thoughts when you’re drowning your sorrows in Chunky Monkey ice cream.
Knowing the tricks emotions have up their sleeve allows you to manage them better. Next time you’re feeling miserable, expect your mind to throw miserable thoughts at you, but don’t let yourself be drowned in this story your mind is creating for you. See the thoughts, feel the thoughts, and let them pass.
When it comes to emotions it is always useful to remember that “this too shall pass.”
To recap:
1) Emotions are transient
2) Emotions exist to tell you something
3) Emotions are tricky
So, go, feel your emotions, live your life, and don’t allow yourself to drown in the tricks your mind may play on you.
