Thought for the Day – Nothing more than Feelings

Feelings and how we deal with them has come up on phone calls with 12-step friends several times in the past few days. 

Of course, dealing with feelings is not my job. It’s God’s job. Anytime “I” am dealing with feelings I am playing god.

My only job is to feel the feelings and share them with God and the appropriate people in my life.

The difference between a feeling and an emotion is the word motion. I look at e-motion as a feeling that sets the mind and body in motion.

How many times drunk or sober have I reacted based on feelings and taken actions that create more harms.

There is so much avoidance of feelings going on inside that it’s  nearly a full time job. Dr. Tiebout suggested in Ego Factors with special reference to alcoholism, that all alcoholics are thin skinned. Of course I know what that means. 

thin-skinned
adjective
1. sensitive to criticism or insults. 
2. having a thin skin or rind

If I take a slightly deeper dive into living in a body with the family disease, the second definition is as accurate as the first. Although I have nothing to compare it to. I would say that having “thin skin” is an accurate description of how sensitive I am to any feelings that I label as negative.

There is nothing like being drunk to numb seemingly negative feelings and control my “inner-life”.

‘It is almost like having the family disease of alcoholism is the same as having no skin and all my nerve endings are exposed to the air and everything hurts.

Once again this resistance to feelings is a boogeyman that creates more suffering as I am once again the lord of my life and trying to control things that I have no business in.

Contemplation for the Day

Am I scared of feelings?
Do I constantly try to control them one way or another?

Prayer for the Day

God, please help me to feel and share my feelings with You today.