Wholeness Sample

NAME IT TO TAME IT

Negative emotions are a bit like feeling nauseous. They can ruin our day, hinder dreams and rob us of the joy of living. Many fear their negative emotions and default to suppressing them instead of expressing them. The truth is that you can’t heal what you don’t reveal. Finding safe spaces to express emotion is healing for the soul. When we express emotion in a safe space, and another hears it, we experience our value.

David Augsburger, author of Caring Enough to Hear and be Heard, wrote, “Being heard is so close to being loved, that for the average person it is almost indistinguishable.”

Imagine how different the lives of people would be if everyone could both offer and find safe spaces for expressing their emotions to the point of feeling truly heard.

Be that safe space for someone today.

Validation listing is a straightforward three-step tool:

1. "I hear you say…" Name the emotion you heard someone express…
2. "Is there more…?" Invite them to talk more about that emotion…
3. Validate the emotion… "It makes sense to me you feel….(insert emotion) given that…..."

When someone validates your emotional world, you experience your value in the eyes of another.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• What emotion are you struggling with most right now?
• Who are safe people in your world you will choose to express your emotion to?
• Who in your world do you think needs a listening ear right now?

PRAY:

God, thank you for creating me with the ability to feel. Thank you that you care enough to collect every tear I shed in your bottle. Thank you for making me wonderfully complex. Please help me be your ears to a broken, hurting world around me. Amen