Emotional Lessons

Forgive me if this comes off a bit weird, but having to change dirty diapers all day long has got me thinking. We have an amazing analogy here. When a baby is born, its body, like every human on the planet, drags the yucky stuff out of the nutrients of the food ingested and then gets rid of it. And rightly so. Can you imagine what would happen if my little Isaac couldn’t liquidate the contents deemed useless to the body? Not a pretty picture.

Think emotions for a minute. Living in a world were just like the food we eat, the emotional experiences we have are mixed, with some useful and some useless. Imagine if we were as organized and prepared for the emotional waste that we all have to get rid of from time to time. Imagine how much chaos could be stopped in our world if we could release our negative emotions in such a way they did minimal damage to those around us.

Think Potty Training

Soon I’ll be teaching Isaac where and when to get rid of waste. It’s a big step in the world of babies. Huge step. And yet when it comes to our emotional waste, a natural byproduct of living with imperfect people who can be abrupt and inconsistent, and even down right mean, there is no training in sight. This is a terrible loss.

Imagine with me for a moment. Imagine a world where we all knew when and where to give up the pain.  Where we gave up sadness, insecurities and even rage we feel for being mistreated by those who say they love us. And imagine how there would be little to no build-up of frustrations, little to no funky behaviors egged on by repressed pain or lies breathed on us by well-meaning parents. Yes, and imagine how calm and joyful our world would become! Instead of splattering our emotional garbage on the person who finds it (accidentally or not) we’d be free and clear and safe.

Our Physical Selves

I think we can learn a lot from our physical bodies. The principles that govern them are the same ones that govern our emotional selves. This is handy because our physical selves are concrete and can be seen, heard and felt. However our spiritual selves are unseen and thus easy to ignore or misread. So think about it, how do you think you’re doing with all the negative energy? Do you pack yours away for a rainy day? Do you throw yours off into other people’s yards? Are you even aware of?

It seems these are questions we all need to answer. Because our emotional health (and the wellbeing of our families) stand to gain or lose quite a bit.

Clarissa Worley writes from Oregon.

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