other

Learning more about being emotionally healthy has led me to several life-altering conclusions. One of the first ones was about the other part of my life. What part? This part? No, the other part - the part that nobody really saw, where I was confused, confounded, and often lonely.

We cannot decide to split our lives into sacred and secular, and we cannot split ourselves into public and private. We need to learn how to deal with our emotions so that we can be the same person all day long. When we don't deal with our emotions, we push them away and think they leave, but they don't. They stay with us until we deal with them.

I had a lot of emotions to process through, and truthfully, I'm still working may way through them. But while doing this hard work of addressing my emotions, I have found freedom. Life is easier when you are the same person all day long, all week long, all month long. For me to be able to let go of the anger and confusion, the fear and the sadness I had been pushing around in the other part of my life, I first had to admit that those feelings were there. 

Sometimes you admit you have these emotions and that is enough. At other times, you have to decide what to do with these emotions. Do you walk away from a difficult situation, or do you face it and speak clearly and truthfully to the other people involved? Is there still more you need to do?

I've been doing a lot more praying recently. And I've been reading the Scriptures much more slowly than before. I look for the emotions that are being shown, I examine my own thoughts from the day, and I give it all over to God - the One who can help me sort it all out!

If you feel like you've got this life, and that other life going on at the same time, let me encourage you to figure out who you really are and just be that one person. To get to know yourself better, and figure out if the real you is shining through, you probably need to sort through your emotions. You might not like what you find - but in finding it - you can make an honest change if needed.

It's a long month - more thoughts on emotional health tomorrow!