Healing vs. Controlling Our Emotions

Do you ever struggle to control your emotions? Sometimes, our emotions can be overwhelming and difficult to orient towards what is good. Dr. Sri shares in this episode how Christ wants to heal our emotions and help us orient them towards what is good.

Snippet from the Show
The virtuous person does not just do the right thing, but also desires the right thing.

You can find out more about Dr. Sri’s book The Art of Living HERE.

The Power of Emotions

Emotions are human. We all experience them. What is interesting is that emotions can be good and bad. Some emotions that are not necessarily helpful to us are anger, jealousy, comparison, fear of failure, anxiety, and lust. These types of emotions, if we allow them, can lead us to sin and potentially more harmful emotions. The good news is that Christ wants to heal us in our emotions. He does not simply want to help us control them. He wants to help us heal.

What Is Virtue?

Dr. Sri shares multiple stories and examples to help us understand what virtue truly is. Essentially, virtue is not just about doing the right thing or acting rightly one time. Virtue is an inner strength/ability which we can draw on at any time.

Continence vs. Temperance

Some people may think that these two things are the same. However, they are not. Continence is more about controlling actions. With continence, you may not yell at someone but you are still fuming inside. On the other hand, with temperance, you don’t even get upset in the first place. This does not mean you don’t recognize wrongs that need to be corrected or injustices that need to be righted. However, you are able to right those wrongs in word or deed without losing control of your emotions.

Desiring Rightly

A virtuous person does not just do the right thing. The virtuous person desires the right thing. A virtuous person is not just exteriorly obedient. They desire and do the right thing out of love for God. Sometimes, we can feel like St. Paul who in Romans 7:15 writes, “For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.” We desire what is good, but we struggle to actually do it. God does not want us to constantly be battling our emotions. He wants to heal our emotions. When we can make our love for God and neighbor central, our emotions will also lead us to what is good. We will desire what is good.