In this episode of Vegan Jesus Followers podcast, we explore more about how we are interconnected physically, emotionally and spiritually, specifically how our emotions are connected to our beliefs.
We learned in Transformation Prayer that our emotions are a bridge to our belief system. What we feel in any given moment is a product of our belief. We feel what we believe. We can believe something cognitively (cognitive belief), but our experience (experiential belief) may not match our cognitive belief. We can have a conflict between what we believe cognitively and what we believe experientially. When such a conflict occurs, which belief wins out? Experiential belief.
Our behavior is greatly influenced by what we feel. Most of our behavior is driven by our emotions. If we’re feeling emotional pain, then our choices are motivated by attempts to manage our pain. That’s when we can easily get caught up in addictive behavior. If we believe lies about ourself and have constant emotional pain, then we will continually try to self-medicate our pain by choosing addictive behavior.
Because Buzz didn’t replace the performance-based lies about himself that began when he was a child, it carried into his adult life and into his job, specifically, during his “Performance Review”. One year his boss gave him a lower performance review because everyone’s reviews were artificially shifted down to fit a bell-shaped curve. As a result Buzz left his performance review feeling both angry and discouraged at the same time.
In order to resolve this dilemma, he needed to change his belief about himself by replacing his false thinking with experiential truth that his value and worth isn’t based on where his annual review falls on the bell-shaped curve. As a Jesus Follower, Buzz needed to remind himself that he is accepted, secure and significant and that he is loved by God no matter what his performance review says. That helped him resolve his painful emotions and change his belief about himself, resulting in perfect peace.