Emotional Intelligence

How can you create practices to welcome and learn from your anger and other emotions?

Ephesians 4:26-27

Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not make room for the devil.

In the last decade or so, our culture has really come to understand and value the idea of “emotional intelligence.” Where previous generations may have been taught that displaying human emotion is a sign of weakness or immaturity, we have come to accept that emotions are an essential part of humanness and it’s important to recognize, express, and learn from them. 

Ephesians might suggest the same: we get angry, but we have the ability and responsibility to manage our response to that anger. Anger, when unchecked, can lead to sin, such as judgment, retaliation, malice, or violence. But when we ask “Why am I angry? What triggered me? Why is this a trigger?” we can learn a lot about ourselves and our world, and we create space for Spirit to speak and heal.

How can you create practices to welcome and learn from your anger and other emotions?

— Evan Amo