Do you ever wish you could just turn off your emotions? Let go of the stress? Stop being mad at that person who drives you crazy? Be content even when everything’s going wrong? Live consistently with joy and peace?
The truth is, you can’t turn off your emotions–but you can learn how to let go of them.
Romans 12:2 tells us we’re transformed by the renewing of the mind. This works for anything in life we want to change, including letting go of our negative emotions. An emotions renewing of the mind project is rewarding to work on because you often see growth quickly. Here’s the basic (but not easy) process if you want to work on your emotions:
- Set a manageable goal (see below).
- Renew your mind every time you experience the emotion in that situation.
- Accept what you need to accept (see below).
- Move on.
Manageable Goals
The first thing you need to do is choose a manageable goal. Here’s an example:
Let’s say you have a tendency to worry about everything and anything under the sun. Rather than renewing your mind every time you’re worried, start with one situation. Make a commitment to renew your mind every time that particular worry comes up.
Accept What You Need to Accept
Renewing your mind will help you get rid of the lies that are fueling your emotions, but it won’t solve all your problems. That’s why it’s so important to accept what you need to accept to move on in life.
Here’s an example: let’s say you’re worried about the future of your country. You can replace lies with truth, which will help, and you can also get involved in politics and try to make a difference.
But in the end you’ll still have to face the fact that you have no control over what happens to the country.
If you want to break completely free from worry, you’ll have to accept the fact that yes, something terrible might happen, and if it does, you won’t be able to do a thing about it.
What???
I know, that sounds unacceptable, but it’s true: we can’t control everything in life. Sometimes bad things happen, and there’s nothing we can do about it. In those situations, we have two choices:
- Accept it with a good attitude.
- Accept it with a bad attitude.
It’s a lot easier to accept bad things with a good attitude if life is about God. Renewing my mind always helps me remember that life is about God. And that makes it easier to accept the unacceptable.
More Help for Emotions
If you’d like to work on breaking free from your negative emotions, here are a few resources:
- The Renewing of the Mind Project: This book explains more about how to start an emotions project, plus it contains 250+ Bible verses and 48 sets of questions to help you renew your mind for habits and for specific emotions such as anger, discontentment, envy, greed/lust, pride, judgment, worry, and stress.
- Freedom from Emotional Eating: Even though the focus of this Bible study is weight loss, most of the book is directed towards breaking free from negative emotions.
- Blog posts on emotions
- Blog posts on the renewing of the mind
Help for Specific Emotions
Click on the links below for blog posts on individual emotions:
Is the Taste for Truth Bible study different from the Renewing Your Mind Bible Study?
Hi Edie, Yes, they’re different. The Taste for Truth Bible study is geared toward weight loss and it’s a Bible study where you’ll answer questions and look up Bible verses. The Renewing of the Mind Project is a book you read ( not a Bible study) and it also has questions and Bible verses you can use to renew your mind. I also have a renewing of the mind Bible study – I think I called it the Renewing of the Mind Workshop – that is a series of blog posts you can read on my website. My four published Bible studies are Taste for Truth, Freedom from Emotional Eating, Rally, and Freedom from Procrastination. Hope that helps!
Which underlying emotion is related to self-condemnation? I think my anger and depression come from this. Actually, I’ve heard that depression is suppressed anger. Any thoughts?
Also, I’ve been renewing my mind (albeit, inconsistently) for 2 months, and I’ve lost 0 pounds. I’ve recommitted to renewing my mind EVERY time I break my boundaries, but I would love to schedule a coaching session if you’re still doing those. You ask the question, have you always been able to lose weight in a neat, predictable way? Yes! I have! Until I had a baby, and now it’s just different. My body is different and my mindset is different. I weighed 216 the day before I gave birth, and almost two years later I weigh 192. I have weighed 192 for the last 6 months! I need help. Or other resources for help if you’re not coaching right now.
Hi Nicole, I hope you see this as I just noticed your comment even though it is almost 3 years old! I”m sorry I missed it! As to your questions, I would say self-condemnation is related to insecurity. I have questions for self-condemnation in the insecurity section of my app and the Renewing of the Mind Project. In my Bible study Freedom from Emotional Eating, I have a chapter on depression, and I share that depressions sometimes stems from negative emotions gone too far – so for example, if you regularly live in self-condemnation or anger, that could definitely lead to depression. I’m hoping things are better than when you wrote a few years ago – would love an update and hopefully I will see it this time!! (Email me if I don’t!)
Just want to say Thank You. I’m working my way through Taste for Truth. I know this is a lifelong commitment but I am growing in the Lord daily. I also have had the I Deserve a Donut app and am finally using it to renew my mind. It’s obvious you are a devoted woman of God and I’m grateful God has used you to help me. God Bless.
I’m so happy to hear this, Dee! I know how much oomph it takes to start renewing your mind, so I celebrate with you! Praying God will strengthen you to continue renewing and pour out truth as you go to Him for help and soak in His love and wisdom. Thanks for writing!