Friends, welcome to another episode of FTL. After spending the last two episodes making a case for the importance of a healthy understanding of, and foundation for, identity we move onto an incredibly practical topic: Emotional Wellbeing. Essential to the cultivation of healthy relationships and a meaningful life is the development of emotional well-being and the tools necessary to sustain it. In our conversation this week we examine some of the cultural forces that can undermine a healthy emotional life ranging from a detached stoicism on the one hand to an ungrounded over identification with our emotional states and reality. A basic understanding of the role that neurology and neurochemistry plays in our emotional well being can practically help us give and receive grace, as we journey towards health.

The healing journey invites us to find the middle path and develop a resilient capacity to hold space for and accurately honor all our emotions while identifying healthy ways to both restrain and express them. In doing so we learn a lesson from the witness of the Psalms: that our emotions can serve us well as guides to map the inner-workings of our souls. Both positive and negative alike, belong and can invite us towards courageous and vulnerable expression of them that leads us deeper into relationship with God, ultimately empowering us to step out of victimhood or detachment and into active presence and greater freedom.