Emotional Intelligence: The ABCs of Emotions

Part 4: Emotions: What Went Wrong?

Introduction: You’re reading Part 4 in a blog mini-series on Emotional Intelligence. Read Part 1: Emotions: God’s Idea, Part 2: Why We Feel What We Feel, and Part 3: Good News about Good Moods. I’ve developed this series from material in my book Soul Physicians.

Mood Bent Out of Shape: Mood Disorder

Separated from the life of God, we demand that we become like gods for one another. When our fellow finite beings fail us, then we face personal dis-integration. We’re shamefully exposed as false trusters. Thus, all disorder ultimately arises from a state of disconnection. The emotional result is disordered moods:

• My inability to accurately sense and experience my own inner and outer world and my failure to maintain a healthy self-awareness of my prevailing emotional mood state(s).

• My inability to accurately read my emotional thermostat so that I inaccurately gauge the relational temperature outside and my personal temperature inside.

• My inability to respond to my inner and outer world courageously, lovingly, and wisely.

In mood order, we perceive unpleasant or distressful moods as messages sent from the soul to the body (from the mind to the brain). The message is communicating: “Necessary changes requested. Please reply ASAP! Thank you.”

The symptom (the distressed mood) is thus seen as a potential gift. It is like the warning light in our cars reminding us to “check under the hood.”

In mood disorder, we misperceive our distressed mood and respond in non-God ways. We attempt to manage our misperceived moods self-sufficiently. (Later in this blog mini-series, we’ll explore more about mismanaged moods.)

Mood Reshaped by Christ: Mood Reorder

Satan wants our moods to overwhelm us, control us, and direct us away from God. Or, at least he wants us to respond to them by entering survival mode.

Remember this principle. Overwhelming moods lead to survival mode.

Jesus came to give us life, and that abundantly (perisson). “Abundant” means beyond what is necessary, surplus, left over, greatly enlarged. It is used of the abundance left over after the feeding of the 5,000. Spoiling! Jesus came to spoil us.

Resurrection power allows us to do more than survive. We can thrive (2 Corinthians 1:3-11; Philippians 3:7-15). We can move from anger to love, from despair to hope, and from fear to faith. Resurrection power offers fresh, creative energy, and a reawakening of courage—of mood. As Paul Tournier insightfully describes it:

“The person matures, develops, becomes more creative, not because of the deprivation in itself, but through his own active response to misfortune, through the struggle to come to terms with it and morally to overcome it—even if in spite of everything there is not cure . . . Events give us pain or joy, but our growth is determined by our personal response to both, by our inner attitude” (Tournier, Creative Suffering, pp. 28-29).

Remember this principle. In reordered, redeemed moods, intense moods lead to a thriving mode.

Later in this blog mini-series, we’ll learn more about managing our moods. Here’s my desire now: recognize how marvelous moods can be when managed in Christ and recognize how pernicious they can be when mismanaged under Satan. Appreciate your moods as God-given sources of instant insight into your inner and outer world. Enjoy the usefulness of reordered moods in a disjointed world, which include:

• My God-given ability to become aware of my moods, whether pleasant or unpleasant, and to accept that I am experiencing that mood.

• My God-given ability to face and feel whatever mood I am experiencing, allowing it to grant me insight into my inner self and my external situation.

• My God-given ability to bring rationality to my emotionality by coming to understand the sources of my moods and my resources to manage my moods (responding to my inner and outer world wisely).

• My God-given ability to bring volitionality to my emotionality by choosing how I will manage my moods instead of allowing them to manage me (responding to my inner and outer world courageously).

• My God-given ability to bring relationality to my emotionality by allowing my moods to motivate me toward deeper connection or reconnection with God, others, and myself (responding to my inner and outer world lovingly).

The Rest of the Story

So, all we need to do is work on our inner life and all “negative” emotions will flee? No, there’s more to it. There are other components involved, including our physical body. In our next post, Dust and Divinity, we briefly explore the connection between our bodies (we are physical beings) and our feelings (we are emotional beings).

Join the Conversation

Reread the five bullet points under reordered moods. Select at least one and ponder how you might apply that principle to a current emotional issue you are facing/feeling.