Are you happy? Do you love your life?
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I can honestly say I am and I do. That does not mean I am perfect or trial free. I am still on planet earth learning, progressing, repenting, forgiving…everyday. However, the joy I do feel, the peace I have, and the closeness in my primary relationships is a far cry from the years I struggled to feel joy, faced depression and anxiety, felt like my trials might literally kill me and had no idea what to do about it. Let’s be clear that I had a testimony, I loved the Gospel, I had faith that my pleas for healing and happiness would be answered but I didn’t know how or when and I used to hurt everyday. So although I am still in “earth school” learning some pretty hard lessons I can say I am happy. I can say my prayers have been answered and the peace and healing I sought so fervently has come.
There is one key that made so much difference…and it can for you too!
Wherever you are, whatever you are facing the point of this life is to keep turning to Heavenly Father and our Savior (you know “come unto [Them]”) and let them heal us and make us whole.
One way I’ve learned to do that and really apply our Savior’s Atonement is by really understanding emotions and actually learning how to let Him bear my burdens Emotions are a funny thing. Positive emotions can be glorious and sometimes the sheer magnitude of negative emotions can feel like they might actually kill us! So often without realizing it we either stuff them or turn them off. Either way the negative ones are still in there doing their dirty work and stifling the good emotions. It seems counter intuitive to let them out and face them because we’ve been taught not to. We’ve been taught to grin and bear it, that that is faith,that we have to be grateful and not express negative feelings…and/or we may have been to counseling or talked to a trusted loved one which sometimes is really just venting, bringing up all the buried emotions and then feeling horrible about ourselves for admitting the deep dark feelings and not really getting tools to let them go so essentially we are just marinating in them. Ick. Or we suppress the anger, fear, regret (you fill in the right emotions for you) to the point they boil over unexpectedly and we hate ourselves and our emotions more. So we push them down deeper, feel anxiety, maybe vacate the pain through food (that’s what I did) or Facebook or tv or other addictions and we hurt. Yet we don’t understand why.
Christ said “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest” Mathew 11:28. In fact He also said “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” The more I turn to Him, the more I learn to let the ugly, painful emotions out (not to marinate in) but to truly give to Him, the more He heals me. He truly listens. He truly lets me say and feel all the anger, sorrow, fear, frustrations, helplessness, etc. I feel and He truly lets me give it to Him.
In fact Christ understands and forgives me
and loves me anyways!
And He feels the same for you.
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It’s not like we’re actually hiding the thoughts and emotions from Him anyways! But when we stuff them and try to ignore them they are literally killing us and in a way we are denying the healing grace of the Atonement He so lovingly made for us. Yet when we acknowledge the negative feelings and thoughts, let them up and out and give them to the Savior. He can actually help us do something about them. He can actually heal our pain! Plus, when we courageously get on our knees and really tell Heavenly Father how we are feeling (aka really let the trapped emotions out) not only can we be succored (which by the way means Christ runs to us and comforts us) but it clears space in our hearts to feel the love and joy and peace (aka positive emotions) we seek.
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He does love YOU. He can heal you. Even though I’d always been a disciple and believed in Him, I had to learn how to let Him heal me and believe Him that He actually would.
You can too.
From there I had to learn how to discern if my thoughts and emotions were really even true…but that’s another article. Start here. Practice giving Him your pain on a deeper level. If you really need to know more now or need help reach out to me. I’d love to help! I’m here for you!
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