Inner Groaning

Psalm 6:6 - I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.

You wake up in the morning groaning. It’s a new day, but because you had a night filled with nightmares you didn’t rest.
 
In a previous post, I talked about how groaning can sometimes be of use in our lives. Today I’m going to talk about how we can find level ground in our minds even if we groan in our spirit.
 
Living with emotional pain can be a rollercoaster ride. You go up feeling okay and that you can handle things, but then the ride plummets you toward the ground, knocking the wind out of your lungs and back into your valley of emotional pain.
 
So you groan. You cry. You beg for this to go away, but you can’t stay at the top of the rollercoaster long. You’re eventually going to head down again.
 
You spill out of bed and rush to the restroom as nausea takes over once again. Every bone in your body feels like it’s screaming at you. Yes, emotional pain does cause physical pain and illness.
 
So what’s the answer? Do we shut ourselves off from the world? Do we look to self-medicate ourselves by overeating, over exercising, over achieving?
 
You can try those things, but it will only cover up the problem. What do you do?
 
You get off the rollercoaster.
 
Life is full of ups and downs and heartaches that want to crush your spirit. And yes, there will be a good cause for those ups and downs during seasons of your life; and, there will be times filled with groaning.
 
But I’m talking about chronic emotional pain. For that you must do all you can to get off the rollercoaster.
 
I heard once that instead of seeing life as full of mountains and valleys see life as parallel tire tracks.
 
At any given time you have something good going on in your life and something bad going on in your life. The choice is what will your focus be on? Only then will your life begin to level off as seeing the good and the bad at the same time.
 
Find some tips from psychologytoday.com, in their article, “Tips for Managing Your Emotional Ups and Downs,” such as skipping the news and avoid reading or listening to anything negative.
 
Life is always going to be filled with things that cause you emotional pain. However, choosing to see life on even ground can help your inner groaning dim to a whisper. And remember, God, who hears your groaning will help you each step of the way as you live your life differently.

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