*Disclaimer- If you feel any emotion too strongly, seek medical attention. I am not a therapist or licensed counselor. These are just my experiences and my thoughts.
This week I read 4 books. To some, this might sound like an accomplishment. But as I closed the 4th book, all I felt was a sense of loss and impending sadness.
I wasn’t reading out of enjoyment this week. I was reading as a distraction. Therefore, the happiness and peace that I usually get out of one of my favorite pass times was completely lost.
What I learned this week is that distractions only help us ignore a problem longer. Distractions serve no other purpose.
We tend to try and distract externally from what is going on internally. Whether it is watching a TV show, reading a book, exercising, or using some kind of ED behavior, we distract because the emotion that we are feeling is something that we don’t want to deal with.
This week, I found myself constantly craving distraction. Even in therapy, I didn’t want talk about what was really bothering me. I distracted from my real problems.
Self- made distractions make us feel in control. They help us to feel numb to the emotion. We want to feel numb because feeling numb is preferable to dealing with the emotion or situation. Feeling numb is preferable to feeling anything too strongly.
The problem is, distractions can only last for so long. My distraction will end, and yet my problem will still be there. Then, I am left with this hole of where the distraction was. Suddenly, the emotion of what I was running from starts to fill that hole. Now, I have to deal with it.
And I know, dealing with an emotion can be so hard, especially when you are now removed from the situation and the emotion is still so raw. You might not even understand having such a visceral reaction to something that happened long ago.
But know this, distraction is just a temporary band-aid on a wound that is going to burst open again. You have to heal the emotion before you start to get better.
When you find yourself searching for an escape hatch in life, instead of hanging onto the control that those distractions give you, let go and feel the emotion and experience the situation. The escape hatch wont help you in the long run. The distraction will only hold off the emotion for a little while. These coping mechanisms are not helpful!
When we feel these emotions and want to run away, we need to run towards the Lord instead. The Lord is always there to help us feel through our human emotions.
Our Father loves us so deeply. He wants us to come to Him when we are hurting, not go searching for other things to distract us. Coming to God with your pain, your grief, your anxieties and fears will open up a relationship with our Father that is healing. We have to CHOOSE to turn to Him instead of turning towards distractions. Choosing to turn to him shows our emotions who is actually in control in our lives.
The fear can scream as loud as it wants to because the Lord is here to help us.
The sadness can feel deep, but the Lord’s love is deeper.
Anxiety can leave us with a swirling mind of what if’s, but God will remind us what is.
Guilt can feel all consuming, but God can cover you in his all overwhelming love.
We have so much more control in life than we think we do. We can actively choose to not follow the pattern that we are used to following. We can actively choose to not act on that behavior, no matter the emotional fall out. We can choose to turn towards the Lord in prayer instead of turning towards the distraction in numbness.
We have so many choices in this life because God gave us this beautiful free will! But with this free will, that means that we have to actively make the choice to follow Him and His ways.
His ways feel very foreign to us because they are opposite of the human way to do things. While humans run from emotion, we see people throughout the Bible FEEL their emotions while they cry out to the Lord. When is the last time that you have cried with the Lord when you’ve been in pain? When is the last time that, in your anxiety, you asked for God’s peace over your mind?
See…. control. We think that we have this ultimate control by distracting, when really, we have the ultimate control by choosing to turn towards God and feel, trusting that He will be there to catch you and hold you close as you ride out the waves o that emotion.
This week, instead of relying on distractions to get you through the hard emotions, choose to feel them in the moment. Choose to not let that one emotion control your entire life. As someone who let fear control her instead of facing it, I can tell you that emotions will put you in a box that feels inescapable. Choose to turn to God with that hard emotion or situation and trust that He will be there with you, and that He will take care of it.
Make sure to check around the site to see my other devotionals as well as read my Eating Disorder Recovery testimony. I hope that you sign up below for my email list! I send out a weekly email that gives you a devotional to start your week of in the right mindset! It also will always include a freebie!
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