How do you handle negative feelings?
1. Hide them from others: play them down or deny them: ‘It’s nothing: I’m fine’.
2. Hide them from yourself: bury them somewhere in your mind so deep you (almost) forget they’re there
3. Intellectualise them: circle them with your big old brain, give them labels and talk about them like the sights in a foreign city
4. Play with them: approach them like a child, carry them round like a comfort blanket
5. Project them: like a bat-signal on the roofs of other people: ‘It’s her fault: she makes me feel/act like this..’
6. Justify them: with an arsenal of excuses
7. Twist them: whatever you feel, act the opposite
8. Flee from them: withdraw from others and whatever you feel
9. Feed them and/or Starve them
10. Speak them: to others and to God.
I cry aloud to the LORD;
I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy.
I pour out my complaint before him;
before him I tell my trouble.
When my spirit grows faint within me,
it is you who know my way.
Psalm 142:1-3
God’s word is perfect, reviving the soul – thank you!
Perfect timing, thank you.
I like to try combinations of options #1 through #9. Then from the bottom of a very deep and straight sided pit, I give #10 a go!
However, if it was YOUR problem I would know right away how to handle it :)
Brilliant. Number 3 is the killer for me. It’s so easy to turn it into an intellectual exercise and read articles about it. Discuss it. Be fascinated by it. Even build my life around it as I come to terms with having this ‘tourist attraction’ in my life. Yet, when I have actually done number 10… it is so different. The Living God and His people can cope with problems and just don’t find them as fascinating or complicated as I made them.
Alice and Julie – hello! and thanks
Caroline – this is so true. Give all the options a go and then, in desperation, try 10.
Paul – In my head, I too am a piece of unique and complicated splendour. Man, the HS has a tough job!
Oh I like this lots! Such a temptation in Christian circles to ignore / deny your feelings, or try to fix them yourself on your own. But that’s not what the Bible teaches…
Need this reminder always.x