Overcoming Overwhelming Emotions With God’s Help

Hello! Last week, I announced the release of my new book, Lean Into Grace: Let God’s Grace Heal Your Heart, Refresh Your Soul, and Set You Free. Today, I’m sharing another excerpt to give you a glimpse inside the book. This reading comes from a chapter about learning to overcome overwhelming emotions with God’s help. I pray it blesses you!

Overcoming Overwhelming Emotions

It’s an unseasonably warm December afternoon as our family trudges to the top of the hill where scotch pines and blue spruces speckle the beige backdrop of weathered goldenrod.

I am fully engaged and prayerful as the sun shines warm upon our skin and a scrim of feathery cirrus clouds stretches across the western horizon.

As we scan the array of trees, we take time to imagine which tree will fit best in the corner of our living room.

We finally agree on a short-needled spruce.

After cutting it down, we head for home with grateful hearts.

A few hours later, the tree is settled in the corner of the living room, and it’s time to dig out the ornaments and start decorating. I thoughtfully inhale the aroma of pine pitch and reflect on our wonderful afternoon in the woods. It’s been a grace-filled day—unhurried and woven together with the golden thread of gratitude.

When Our Buttons Are Pushed

Before I tell you about the moment in which this glorious day fell apart, let’s pause for a moment and talk about the moments when our “buttons are pushed.” For the purpose of our conversation today, I’ll use the term “trigger” to refer to the events and situations that push our buttons, causing us to feel upset and overwhelmed.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I repeatedly lose my patience when the kids track mud into the house, dishes are left stacked in the living room, watermarks stain the couch cushions, and dirty fingerprints cover the walls.

Your triggers are probably different from mine. I invite you to consider what makes you come unraveled as I share the events that unfolded while my excited children “helped” decorate for Christmas.

Dealing With Overwhelming Emotions

After hauling what feels like 45 boxes of decorations from the basement, the oldest children help me pull ornaments, tangled strings of lights, and Santa figurines from dusty boxes. I take a deep breath as they decorate the house according to their tastes, argue over decorations for their rooms, and prematurely cover the bottom half of the tree with ornaments.

“Breathe, Stacey,” I whisper under my breath. “Just breathe. Enjoy this process. These kids will only be young for so long.”

Sadly, stress hormones have overtaken my body, and the wise voice telling me to breathe is soon silenced by the chaos unfolding in front of me.

My diaphragm tightens as the kids bicker over where to place the decorations.

As I break up the arguments and attempt to explain the importance of stringing the lights on the tree before hanging the ornaments, I feel my right eyelid twitching with stress.

Tension rises as I attempt to figure out why the tangled web of lights won’t illuminate.

In the meantime, the pine needles and crumpled leaves scattered across the floor threaten to send me over the edge.

I reflect on my state of mind as the string of lights becomes increasingly tangled, and I realize that I desperately need God to help me protect my family from my overwhelming emotions.

Unlike me, decorating for Christmas might not be an overwhelming task for you, but I imagine you know about overwhelming emotions. Maybe you mutter profanities when careless drivers cut you off in traffic, or you feel suffocated in large crowds. Perhaps you feel overwhelmed when you get behind at work or go into fight or flight mode when dealing with conflict.

How to Return to Peace When We Feel Overwhelmed

How do we turn to God and let his grace lead us back to peace in these moments?

I’ve learned a simple, three-step process. I hesitate to break this de-escalation process into three steps because following God is never a formula.

There’s no step-by-step method for activating God’s grace. God’s grace is a free gift offered by a loving Father to his precious children. However, we do play a role in positioning ourselves to receive God’s grace.

Leaning Into God’s Grace

God is always ready to impart his grace. Our role is to make sure we are available to receive it. This is at the heart of leaning into grace.

We can lean into God’s grace in our triggered moments (when we are in fight or flight mode) by remembering the acrostic CAT.

In the acrostic CAT, C stands for Calm your nervous system. The first step when stress hormones flood our bodies is to calm our central nervous systems. This is important because when we’re triggered, we often lose the ability to connect with God and others. We need to be able to connect with God in order to move to the second step of the process.

The second step of the process is to Ask God why you’re reacting the way you are. This step includes bringing our raw emotions to God and processing them in his presence.

Lastly, after talking to God about our emotions, the final step is to stand on God’s Truth instead of standing on our feelings. Let’s review:

Calm your nervous system.
Ask God why you’re reacting the way you are.
Stand on God’s Truth instead of standing on your feelings.

I offer a full breakdown of these three steps in my new book, Lean Into Grace. . . .

Keep Reading Here:

If you’d like to learn more, I invite you to check out Lean Into Grace on Amazon. This powerful book is available in eBook form for FREE on the Kindle Unlimited plan or in print for 12.99. If you don’t have the Kindle Unlimited plan, consider the free three-month trial. (You can turn to Chapter Eight to pick up where we left off today)!