Self-Care with Emotions

God made us with the capacity for the full spectrum of emotions. So emotions are God’s Fault. Or gift. Or cruel joke. However you feel about emotions, if we can start with the belief that emotions are part of who we are as created beings, then we don’t need to be afraid or ashamed of our emotions. We even have the comfort of seeing examples of sadness and anger in Jesus’ life!

Emotions are morally neutral; it’s what we do when they happen that can become problematic. So there are no negative emotions, just negative reactions to emotions. Experiencing our emotions in relationship with Jesus is the very best emotional self-care that Christians can practice. There is no better place to bring our authentic emotional self than squarely into relationship with Jesus.

The skill to grow your ability to bring your emotional self into your relationship is quite simple. I start my prayer or my journal entry with “Jesus, I feel ___________.” I fill in the blank with the emotion I’m experiencing, and then I start exploring why I feel that emotion. Some people are helped by having an emotions list or chart (you can google this and get lots of options) to help you identify what you might be feeling.

After exploring why the emotion has come up, I start another prayer. “Jesus, what does a faithful response to this emotion look like?” If it is a difficult emotion for you, then ask for Jesus’ help dealing with it. Jesus wants this kind of authenticity and closeness with us. And emotional connection is the best way to grow intimacy.

Try this on a regular basis to grow emotional awareness and to practice the best emotional self-care: processing emotions with God.