"Feelings, nothing more than feelings"...wait what?

Sometimes the sky is blue

Lately I have been reading quite a bit about how we should not let circumstances determine our feelings. I've also heard a few sermons recently running along a similar thread about how we need to continue to have faith in God regardless of what happens in our lives. In other words, regardless of what is happening, or how we feel, we need to hold steadfast onto what we believe. I'm not going to go into a long discussion about my beliefs (although I might do that one day), but this whole concept became incredibly real to me on Tuesday. Today is Thursday.

Anyway, it has been quite a while since I have had a 'bad day'. Everybody gets them. There is usually one catalyst of something 'bad' that happens and then a multitude of (often small) things that seem to continuously happen, building up until you manage to make it home and you curl up into bed. Or at least that's what you have been wanting to do. But, you know what I mean! There is almost always some 'rational‎' reason for how you are feeling.

Back to the point please? Monday was a lovely day, but on Tuesday I woke up and I felt tired. I tried to shake it off, but as the day went, I just felt flat, for no reason. It wasn't that I felt moody or irritable (there is definitely reason for those feelings), but I just felt bleh. Nothing bad had happened. Nobody looked at me skew. All my students were fine. We didn't have a heavy night on Monday. I didn't get stuck in traffic. There was no reason. Nothing to blame for how I was feeling. And that's when it hit me. It is not just that we let circumstances determine how we feel, it's that we can change how we feel for no particular reason. Somehow this was a huge paradigm shift for me. Maybe you are thinking 'but that's so obvious', or 'you're a woman' etc. I really don't know if this means anything to anybody else, but it really got me thinking. If I were to base everything I did or thought in my life on just my feelings, where would I be now?

It also got me thinking about how I respond to other people's feelings. But that is discussion for another time.

Let me know how you feel about this.