09/12/2024
Someone recently asked me if I thought “negative emotions” were bad. I answered NO—we need all of the emotions, every single one.
-
Frustration, peace, joy, loss, worry, regret, and even anger.
-
First of all, I believe God created us with all the emotions for a reason. If he wanted us to only feel joy, then he would’ve just given us that.
-
But we’ve been given the ability to feel ALL the feels, not just the “positive ones”. There’s purpose in that.
-
Being able to feel the difference between contentment and disappointment, or anger and peace is vital to our human experience.
-
Experiencing “negative emotions” allows us to understand or empathize with each other as we experience similar feelings.
-
And sometimes “negative emotions” are what brings positive change, especially when we see what we have done wrong or realize how to handle something better in the future. Often they lead to forgiveness, which in the end brings love.
-
Emotions take some regulation though. We have to balance the good with the bad. We don’t want ONE emotion to take over our life so that is the only one we seem to feel all the time—whether it be a positive or negative emotion. It’s ok to work on our emotional growth.
-
The good news is that our emotions are what connect us as humans. We find unity as we feel joy together, compassion as we sorrow together, growth and change as we feel frustration together.
-
So whatever emotion you are feeling today, it’s ok to feel it. Let that emotion have its moment…and then let some of those other emotions have a turn too.
