I wrote about getting the emotions out of the equation when it comes to exercise and eating yesterday in my post about getting in shape. Since then, I’ve really been thinking about that concept this morning. I saw Thea’s comment on my post which made me analyze that thought even more. My journaling time this morning (which I make time for EVERY morning) was spent mostly on that one topic.
As a child I learned to stuff my emotions. How that behavior was learned is a post for another day. But, I got really good at hiding my feelings and even turning them off to an extent. It really wasn’t that hard for me so I think my nature may lean towards not having a whole lot of emotion anyway. Then again, who knows how strong those learned behaviors can get.
For the last 20 years or so, I’ve been learning how to feel those emotions again. Children are often the best teachers and I will admit that they have taught me a great deal about all emotions from love to fear to anger to frustration to joy and everything in between. There have been other major players in there as well that taught me some valuable lessons.
I’ve realized just how much of life I had missed by turning off my emotions. Yes, it made the pain much more bearable, but I missed out on SO much good stuff!! I believe that you can only feel the good emotions to the degree that you feel the bad emotions. By turning off the bad emotions, I’ve turned off the good emotions as well. I didn’t really experience the greater degree of love until I experienced an incredible degree of fear when my tiny baby developed breathing problems and almost died. It really wasn’t until I let him go and realized that he could die from anything at any time without my approval that I truly experienced the freedom of love as well as the knowledge that really ALL I have are the present and the memories I’m making in the present. It was a life changing experience that is also a post for another day 
My point is that I’ve spent all this time trying to turn my emotions back on and then I catch myself saying take the emotion out of it. I had to give that some serious thought. Was that really what I meant to say? Do I really mean to take the emotion out of it? I need to explain what I mean a little clearer.
By saying ‘take the emotion out’, I most certainly do NOT mean to ignore your emotions about a subject whether it’s weight loss, starting a business, or anything else. It’s important to feel our emotions! I believe they are indicators that show me how far away I am from the mind and heart of God. When I’m feeling what I consider a bad or uncomfortable emotion, it’s because I’m looking or thinking of something differently from how God would look or think about that same thing. So, I most certainly appreciate those bad emotions because they help to set me back on track.
I think I feel bad about exercise because my thinking is screwed up! So, to me, when I say ‘get the emotion’ out of it, I’m really saying, ‘start thinking about this in the correct way so that the emotion involved is a good emotion or is something that I just do without any emotion at all.’
I guess another way to put it is this: When I wallow in the bad emotion of hating exercise, it drains my energy! It takes a lot of energy to hate something. It takes a lot of energy to come up with a million reasons of how I can get out of my exercise today. It takes more mental energy to feel all that than it takes physical energy to just go ahead and DO IT! So, ‘taking the emotion out’ means to do it without thinking about it at all – or do it with the right attitude and thinking that God would place on it.
If God made my body to need exercise, then I guarantee you that He does not HATE exercise. And when I HATE exercise I feel bad, because my thinking is NOT matching up with God’s thinking on the subject. I either have to just do it and not think about it (which keeps the emotions away) or I have to do it and think about it in the right way (which will make me experience good emotions).
If you’ve had kids I’m going to bet that there were many days when you had to argue with them about why they should brush their teeth or get their bath. I’m also willing to bet that your parents had that same argument with you when you were younger. But, as we grow older, we do it without even thinking or we enjoy it because we see the benefits. No one has to tell me to get a shower any more. I WANT to do it. Not because I particularly enjoy it every time I do it, but because I either want to do it or I just don’t think about it. It’s just something that I do. I don’t even evaluate how well I did it like I used to do with my kids!
“Did you wash behind your ears?”
Why did I ask that? Because I knew that the chances were pretty good that they didn’t. Was it because they FORGOT to do it?? NO. It was because that was their last bit of defiance! Once the last bit of defiance was out of the way, the emotions were gone. It became a non-issue.
So, in a way, I AM saying that some things aren’t worth good or bad emotions. They are just there. They are just something we do. And we just do them without thinking. They take little mental energy that way. Our metal energy is saved for the things that REALLY matter such as our passions, our relationships, and our new and exciting experiences.
I am trying to look at where I am spending my mental energy. Then I look at where I WANT to spend my mental energy. If these two places aren’t the same, then the one that is taking my mental energy probably needs to become a non-issue. This is what I meant about my body image. I don’t want to waste my mental energy on my body. I want a healthy, well body, but I don’t want to spend all my mental energy there. I want to spend my mental energy on my family and friends and my passions. Therefore, taking care of my body must become a non-issue just like taking my shower. And, yes, I DID wash behind my ears without even thinking about it.
