Here is a bit more on emotions from Father Richard:
When it comes to honoring our emotions, we have to say both a strong “yes” and a strong “no.” We must begin with “yes” because so many of us were trained, by family and religion, to not feel our feelings. They thought they were doing us a favor, because they didn’t want emotions to rule our life. Unfortunately, that gave a moral connotation to even having feelings, not just the “negative” ones like anger, resentment, or fear, but the positive ones too, like pleasure, happiness, and even desire. The overt or subliminal messaging “That’s wrong. That’s bad” stunted our capacity to appreciate, and to suffer or to allow the full meaning of reality. Emotions are, first of all, a gift from God so that we can touch reality by a way other than our brain.
I was definitely trained as Father Richard describes. There was a huge amount of emotion swirling around my upbringing, stuffed down by various forms of substance abuse. It has taken decades in addiction recovery for me to learn to recognize and express my emotions.
I am so grateful to find painting as a way to express myself. Before going to Bali earlier this year, we were told to bring something to leave on a temple altar as a means of release. I did an intentionally ugly little painting representing all those things I wanted to release. Oh, boy, that set off a horrific chain of events that I am still recovering from. However, having survived, I am thankful for the end result--restored relationships and freedom from huge amounts of anger and resentment.
The big painting is complete--stay tuned!
Leta
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