You are not too sensitive.

It is good to feel. 
It is good to feel tender. 
It is good to be sensitive.

Perhaps, like me, somewhere along the way, you were accused of being too sensitive, of feeling too much, of being one of those annoying emotional ones, and you were rejected for your anger, criticised for your joy, underestimated because of your tears. 

When talking about her daughter feeling distressed about the looming crisis of Polar bears, Glennon Doyle said:

"[She is ] not crazy to be heartbroken; the rest of us are crazy not to be... As soon as [Tish] heard the polar bear news, she let herself feel the horror and know the wrongness and imagine the inevitable outcome. Tish is sensitive, and that is her superpower. The opposite of sensitive is not brave. It's not brave to refuse to pay attention, to refuse to notice, to refuse to feel and know and imagine. The opposite of sensitive is insensitive, and that's no badge of honor… Nothing can be healed if it's not sensed first… My little girl is not broken. She is a prophet. I want to be wise enough to stop with her, ask her what she feels, and listen to what she knows."

Nothing can be healed if it's not sensed first.

You will only know where the places of pain are if you allow yourself to feel them. 
You will only know where the places of joy are if you allow yourself to feel them.
You will know what and who needs attention and in what ways and with what resources if you first allow yourself to be wise enough to stop, listen, feel - be brave enough to be moved. 
You will know what the anger means and where the tears come from and what brings the laughter and why your blood warms the way that it does and how to hold the tension of things like jealousy and comparison and envy and compassion and mercy and acceptance if you allow yourself to feel them, to feel it all, to let feeling well up within you and spill out onto the world around you. 

Feeling is your answer; it is the key, it is your superpower.

And yes, there is wisdom for how you engage your emotions, and what ones you give power, and how you allow them to lead you to truth and what you do with them after they show up - absolutely. But if we continue to demonise emotions and feelings, we will never allow ourselves and others the grace to practise self-regulation and holistic feeling.

You are not a burden for being emotional or sensitive; for paying attention and grasping the weight of things, be they good or bad. It is wisdom. It is prophetic. It is holy. 

The problem isn't that the world is too sensitive; its insensitivity that is killing us, dividing us, tearing us apart, from the seemingly small things to the traumatically violent things; it is un-feeling that will be our great un-doing. 

Paul wrote to his friends in Ephesus and said: 

"Be gentle with one another, sensitive, tenderhearted." *

That gentle sensitivity, your tender heart; it's the vulnerable soft places in you that are the most powerful and strong and true.

I know it doesn't feel like it. And I know the pushback you may feel, even in your heart at hearing this, because you've been told for so long and you live in a world that tells you to stop crying, calm down, don't be over-the-top; emotions are for the unseen places.

But friend your tenderness will save you... not indifference.

You are not too sensitive. You are a prophet. Rise up and share your felt wisdom.

Mindful Prompt: You are not a burden for being emotional or sensitive; for paying attention and grasping the weight of things, be they good or bad. It is wisdom. It is prophetic. It is holy. 

Continued in the upcoming series, "It’s Good To Be…" this week with a subscription in the App.

* Eph 4:32

Written by Liz Milani.
Instagram: @thepracticeco