Managing Your Emotions
An emotional dip is a downward emotional experience from a few hours to several days in your life. I believe we can assume we all experience emotional dips throughout our lives. An emotional dip is generally unexpected, unwelcomed and unavoidable. It is a part of life.
When I think of an emotional dip, I think of “Roller Coaster Road” here in Tucson. Back in the old days, before Tangerine Road was leveled out, you would drive along that little, two-lane dirt path out there, and suddenly, the bottom would drop out. You’d go down into a dip, and then you’d come back up the other side. We’ve all driven down those kinds of roads. Sometimes it’s fun; the kids love them.
I can think about many dips in my life. One that immediately comes to my mind immediately was in 1994, when my dad died. He had been ill for many, many years, but always recovered. He’d have surgery and recover, another surgery and recover, or a medical treatment and he would recover.
So, I assumed – it was just one more time. But this time he didn’t recover. The days and weeks after his death, I went through a dip in my life. I was reflective and grieving, which is a natural response when there’s loss in your life.
When we think about emotional dips, it’s important to note that I’m not talking about bipolar disorder. They really need to receive treatment and care. It’s not a lack of spirituality or a lack of God’s intentional love for them. It’s a form of mental illness and they need some help.
We all have dips that come along, and I want to talk about five of them:
- An invisible dip.
- The fatigue dip.
- A reflective dip.
- An anxious or fearful dip.
- The deep dip.
In the culture in which we live today, young people are being set up for bigger dips, longer dips and more serious dips than ever. We see depression and suicide on the rise for young people, and we see more mental illness.
Some of us are more susceptible to emotional dips than others. And together, we’ll explore these five deeps in upcoming blogs.
The next time you face a dip, I encourage you to keep moving and set your focus on Christ. Keep your focus on that goal striving for that next right one thing that God has for you.
Remember, the Lord helps us through the dips. The best way to get out of the dip is to keep the momentum, to come out the other side, to keep our focus on the top of that next hill. As we go through our lives, whatever depth of a dip we face, I pray we’ll learn from them and give God the glory as we come out of them.
