Emotions

I know I have been MIA for the last couple of weeks. I have been really busy and my posts got put on the back-burner. Sometimes we just have to roll with the punches.

Let's talk about emotions.

A few years ago I experienced several emotional breakdowns over a short period of time. With my husband working a lot, I felt like I was doing everything else by myself. At the end of most days I was completely exhausted and annoyed at my children and my husband. When my children wouldn't leave me alone and I would see my husband do something like look at his phone or computer, I would completely flip out. I would scream, go into my room, and slam the door. When my husband would come to talk with me, I would unleash on him by screaming things like:

• "I am doing everything by myself!"
• "You are always playing around on your phone and never help! You always have an excuse!"
• "The children never help!"
• "I am burned out and ready to give up and leave!"

Several times I did leave. I took the keys and drove away.

Then I would come back. I was still angry, but I would always come back.

It's crazy how intense emotions can trigger intense actions. The last few weeks we have been speaking with our children about emotions. Often we judge emotions to be good or bad emotions. By the way, if you missed it, read my post about judgment speech here. But over the last few years my perception of emotions has changed.

I don't judge emotions as either good or bad, but simply part of us. I believe God intentionally created us with the ability to experience emotions, even very strong ones. After all, "...men are that they might have joy." 2 Nephi 2:25.

Is it possible to experience real joy without sorrow, or real pleasure without pain? While we may dislike certain emotions like pain, I believe God allows us to experience the unpleasant emotions in order for us to understand the pleasant emotions to their fullest.

The real issue is whether we should allow our emotions to control our actions. When we allow unpleasant emotions to control our actions, we often experience undesirable outcomes.

Here is an example from a course I took called Emotional Resilience for Self-reliance:

This simple example helps understand how our emotional reactions can create undesired results.

So how does a person prevent the undesired results from emotional reactions?

We're going dissect this topic over the next few days. As for today I want to hear your thoughts. Do you classify emotions as either good or bad? Have you been able to fully experience pleasant emotions without their unpleasant counterparts? Do you react to intense emotions, or do you maintain control?

Joy is possible.

Love ❤️, Jen

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