The problem is that when we neglect our most intense emotions, we are false to ourselves and close off an open door through which to know God.

For a couple of years, it was as simple as paying attention to my feelings and journaling them to God a few times a week. Then I would ask God how he might be speaking to me through them.

Emotional health is concerned with such things as:1 naming, recognizing, and managing our own feelings; identifying with and having active compassion for others; initiating and maintaining close and meaningful relationships; breaking free from self-destructive patterns; being aware of how our past impacts our present; developing the capacity to

Awareness of yourself and your relationship with God are intricately related. In fact, the challenge to shed our “old false” self in order to live authentically in our “new true” self strikes at the very core of authentic spirituality.

Give in because we are afraid of not being liked

This requires planning and preparation. For example, many people, due to lack of planning, will watch a movie to relax, only to realize they feel worse spiritually, not better, when it is over.

We forget that change comes through brutal honesty and vulnerability before God.5

BILL OF RIGHTS Respect means I give myself and others the right to: Space and privacy (e.g., knocking on doors before entering, not opening one another’s mail, respecting each other’s needs for quiet and space); Be different (e.g., allowing preferences for food, movies, volume of music, and how we spend our time); Disagree (e.g., making room for

I may not agree with you or you with me. Yet I can remain in relationship with you. I don’t have to detach from you, reject you, avoid you, or criticize you to validate myself. I can be myself apart from you.