Myths You Might Believe about Emotions| Being Emotional Makes You A Weak Person

Hey there, friend! Welcome to the third and final post in my blog series about myths you might believe about emotions and viewing emotions biblically! Take a minute to go check out the first post in the series here, and the second post here. Thank you for reading!

How many of you grew up thinking that the people who could control and manipulate their emotions were the strongest?

I know I did.

I really, genuinely thought that being able to control my emotions was a sign of strength.

This was incredibly hard for me growing up. As a person, I feel everything deeply. I love and hate with a passion I honestly didn’t understand for years. My joy is a high that most people will never experience, but my sadness is a darkness I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I was told I was just too sensitive. I believed that made me weak.

I spent so much energy learning how to control these emotions, not for my own mental health but for the sake of my appearance to other people.

I thought my deep emotions made me weak, so I ran from them.

I treated all sadness and pain as weakness to be avoided at all costs. Soon enough, that started affecting how I felt happiness and joy too. Repressing even one emotion affects everything else around it. My emotional health was like a messy room, and I shoved all my junk in the closet because I didn’t want to clean up. That’s not a sustainable or healthy way to live, friends.

I didn’t realize how important it is to be in touch with your emotions. I didn’t realize what a gift I had in my emotions. I didn’t realize how much damage I was doing by repressing these emotions. I didn’t realize how poorly I was stewarding my mental health and how negatively that would affect my relationships and even my spiritual health.

Emotions are not the enemy. They are not our weakness. Friend, our ability to feel is a gift. It is our strength.

Learning how to be comfortable with feeling sadness and pain and process those emotions takes a brave, strong person.

As a culture, we have lauded the emotionally inept as strong. I’m not buying into that anymore.

Our ability to feel is a God-given gift and I don’t want to run from it anymore.

Learning to be comfortable with being a highly emotional person has been a struggle, but it has also brought many positive changes to my life. These are some things I’ve noticed personally in my own life.

I can process circumstances in my life without resorting to unhealthy coping mechanisms to repress pain. When I chose to feel my pain instead of running from it, so much weight was lifted from my shoulders. Feeling pain is uncomfortable, but constantly running in fear from it was agony. My God who promises to be near to the brokenhearted carried me faithfully in my pain. I didn’t have to run anymore. I didn’t have to fight being weak. I could just be. It was so freeing.

I can help other people better. As a Christian, I am called to help my brothers and sisters in Christ to carry their burdens. I’ve always loved helping people, but I found that I connected with people so much better when I was able to empathize with their pain. Taking care of my own mental health and being comfortable with a full range of human emotions is a critical component of helping others.

I don’t have to be so hard on myself anymore. I was so tired of being called “too sensitive”. Now I understand myself and the way I process things so much better. Often, I am a sensitive person. But I don’t view that as a bad thing anymore. I don’t have to view myself as weak because of my ability to feel emotions. I am responsible for my response to being sensitive but being sensitive is not a weakness. It has the potential to be such an incredible strength.

What about you?

How have you been affected by the myth that emotional people are weak?

Let me know about your own experiences in the comments. I’d love to chat with you.

-Alathia