When we ignore our true self, we open the door for a whole host of negative feelings. These pesky issues fester, get infected, and cause us debilitating emotional pain as they often effect our thoughts and physical health as well.
If we lock away or repress them in our subconscious mind, they attract other negative feelings. We disconnect with our true self, or we sever our image of our self from our identity and take on a whole new persona. We adopt fragmented personalities, depression, addictions, and anger, which cause a disrupted or negative lifestyle and nightmares, etc.
Eventually, we are inundated by this destructive bombardment, which also signals for us that we are neglecting our true self. We cannot sleep, or work during our day, or think clearly enough to function normally. We forget to consult God for His plans for us, and we neglect our health and well-being.
Therefore, we use drugs or other addictions to get to sleep, to wake up, and to anesthetize our pain so that we can function even through ordinary days. We are no longer a whole, connected person. We are distracted, irritable, wounded, even broken.
We attempt to heal on our own, using socializing with friends, dating people that we know are not right for us, idolizing our husband and/or children, learning a new hobby, adopting a new hobby or cause, changing careers, etc. These rarely, if ever, help us to feel whole.
A good place to start healing is to sit alone and quietly in a room, or out in nature with a journal and pen, or blank paper and crayons. This helps us to allow our true self to express his/her issues without censorship or parameters. We get reacquainted with our true self as we strip away the plastic mask we have hidden behind for so long.
As God heals us of our inordinate addictions, habits, and hobbies, we learn to trust the Lord in all our ways, and we do not depend on our own humanistic theories. We seek His advice during each moment of our day, and we look forward to hearing His advice and direction in order to heal completely and to walk in His stability and security (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Prayer:
Father God, help us to have the honesty to list our good qualities and to show our self appreciation for our strengths, as well as to have compassion on our weaknesses. Assist us to make a list of our appropriate behaviors that are not destructive and those that we need to alter, to discover what makes us feel safe or unsafe, and to list what we enjoy doing and what are our favorite things, activities, and people.
Teach us to look through photos of our self and help us to identify any age where we suffered traumatic experiences that need healing, or when we were the happiest and what contributed to that joy. Remind us to apologize to our self for wounding our self with our perfectionism, neglect, deprivation, and codependence. Thank You for healing us from the inside out and for showing us that our true identity is in Christ within us (Colossians 1:27; Galatians 2:20).
Thought for the Day:
If we shower our self with sympathy for hurts that we endured in life, and we apologize for neglecting our own needs and burdening our self with addictions, we start to heal; as we make a commitment to stop overindulging our self with harmful habits and hang-ups that thwart our healing, and instead to start focusing our mind on God’s Word, we will see beneficial and life-changing behavior as well.
