Day 5: Allow the Feelings You are Resisting

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Once you begin to get familiar with the actual thoughts going on in your brain, your first desire is to change them. But before you can change them, you have to be willing to feel the feelings those thoughts bring up.

It’s unlikely that you have been taught how to feel your feelings, at least the ones our society perceives as negative. As an athlete, you have probably been taught to push them away. To be calm and emotionless, especially when you perform.

As a Christian, you may have been taught that many emotions are sinful. They aren’t – it is the actions you take from reacting to or resisting your emotion that is the sin.

“In your anger do not sin” ~ Ephesians 26a

So again, in fear of sinning you try to push them away. The thing is, our emotions don’t work this way.

Our feelings don’t go away. Until they are dealt with, they are always effecting you. And usually when you least expect or want to experience them, they to pop back up. So much more intensely than if you would have dealt with them originally.

There is no off switch for certain emotions without switching them all off (which is actually impossible in the long term). To be a human, to live the human experience, is to be able to experience the full range of emotions. You CAN do this without being overtaken by them. And as emotions fuel everything you do, you WANT to learn how to do this so that you can access the feelings that will fuel the actions you want to be taking.

A feeling is actually no big deal. If you let it pass through your body, allow yourself to experience it, the feeling often passes in seconds if not minutes. You will have some physical sensations, you will allow those to be there without resisting, reacting to or avoiding them. And then it will be gone.

The problem is, you have probably rarely done this. So when you imagine letting yourself feel a feeling, you fear being overtaken. Because this is what happens when your resistance of a feeling finally breaks, and it comes over you so intensely.

It’s the RESISTANCE of the feeling that is so painful and that prolongs the experience. Most people don’t actually know what it feels like to feel a feeling. They only know what it is like to resist it. 

So you are going to learn how to open up to the feeling. Allow it to be there. Let it be present without fighting it and without reacting to it. Let it process through your body. Watch this video to learn how.

Reflect

• What feelings do you resist? Which feelings do you see as bad, wrong or ones to be avoided?
• Why do you think that? Have you ever tried allowing yourself to just feel it? How did that go?

Ask God to reveal anything He has to say to you about this.

Take Action

Spend 5-10 minutes downloading your thoughts in general or about a specific circumstance in your life. 

Now ask yourself what you are making those thoughts mean about yourself. Write down everything that comes to mind.

Ask yourself how you are feeling. Write down every feeling. 

Lastly, ask yourself what feelings you are trying to avoid. Write them all down.

Now pick one of those feelings and allow it to be there. Let it process through your body. This video will help you go deeper.

Spend a few minutes talking to God about your experience.