Emotional and Mental Health - Emotional Climate

There are varying degrees of emotion in the human realm. We are not simply angry, sad, happy or fearful. We could be furious or irritated, overwhelmed with grief or unhappy, overjoyed or tickled, horrified or wary or any degree in between.

The fact is that positive emotions give birth to other positive emotions and negative emotions promote more negative feelings. Our thoughts feed off one another, and our thoughts and emotions influence our behavior.

Our negative emotions can affect our body's health as well, with psychosomatic illnesses. These are very real issues with no physical cause and can influence the longevity of our life.

Yet, when our attitude swings toward the positive, these same diseases disappear and our health actually improves dramatically. God gives us negative emotions to warn us of an unresolved conflict in our soul. It pays to pay attention to and to resolve these issues quickly.

Emotion is not influenced much by economic standing, relational status or our collection of material possessions. We can be happier as a poor person than a rich one, single rather than married, or in a one bedroom cottage instead of a mansion.

One person with horrendous life circumstances can be happier than someone who enjoys perfect health and material prosperity. Genetics even play a part in our overall satisfaction with life.

Melancholy personalities have a hard time seeing anything except through the filter of their negative persona; yet phlegmatic people will often view even the worse of circumstances with a positive outlook.

We tend to avoid people who are determined to see life negatively. Their favorite topics of conversation are their poor health and how unfair life is to them. They shoot holes in our hopes and dreams and bring us down to their level.

The presence of God's Spirit in our spirit is the biggest controller of our emotions; however, we also have the power to choose what our mind dwells on and what we allow to influence our life.

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that negative attitudes and feelings will prevent us from walking in Your Spirit (Galatians 5:15-25). They often deny us the opportunity to achieve Your preordained will for our life (Ephesians 2:10). We want to walk in Your ways and avoid the pitfalls caused by prolonged negative emotions

Help us to develop positive habits that will breed contentment and serenity. Cause us to take frequent moral, emotional and physical inventories in order to have the opportunity to bring any issues to You for resolution. Thank You for abiding in us and with us and for not forsaking us on this earth.

Thought for the Day:

As we face the sun (and the Son), we see a bright future and the only shadows in our life end up being behind us; people will remember us more for our attitude about life than for what we actually say and do.

Healing from Abusive Behavior - Part 1

 

Abuse, even a one-time moment of rage that used abuse as punishment or an attempt to control the victim, robs us of our innocence and makes us feel powerless over our own life.

It drives us into a codependent role - attempting to please others to keep them from abusing us. The problem with this faulty thinking is that it often has the opposite effect.

People tend to continue to abuse our good nature, take us for granted and treat us with contempt. A lack of appreciation and more verbal, mental and physical abuse may follow.

We strive throughout our life to lay down our life in hopes that someone will love us; but we actually teach them that it is okay to take advantage of us, because we constantly put our needs last.

Trauma does not always make us stronger. It may also make us a ball of nerves, fear and insecurity. We are actually weaker, because we are always on the defensive.

We may develop PTSD, much like any survivor of a battle zone, and react to life with this fractured thinking and behavior. Medication may be necessary to help us to remain calm and lucid until God heals us ( www.theophostic.com ).

Journaling helps us to heal by allowing our Inner Parent to understand the deep wounds we experienced and to nurture our Inner Child as we turn our words into a prayer for God's healing.

Prayer:

Father God, I pray for victims of abuse of every type. Give them the deep comfort that can only come from Your love. Restore to them their joy in life and remove from them the fears and insecurities, which plague their life. Redeem their heart and mind and give them a new outlook on life.

Teach them that although people may not be trustworthy, You are always trustworthy. Help us to remain vulnerable and kind, yet wary and wise (Matthew 10:16). Show us the balance between serving others without teaching them to take us for granted by always putting our needs last.

Thought for the Day:

God's perfect goodness and love find expression in the midst of wickedness and degradation; because He experiences every slight right along with us and carries our pain and burden for us, if we will relinquish it to Him.