Mastering Our Emotions by Rev. Christine Emmerling, D.D. 5/10/2026

My prior talk was about Mastering Our Thoughts; this week I’m speaking on Mastering Our Emotions. A Master or Avatar means to have mastery over ones self; over thoughts, words, feelings, emotions, and actions. Then they are able to master the elements of this earth, this dimension and beyond.

In today’s world, Jesus the Christ would be considered a Master or Avatar. Christ Jesus told us in John 14:12, and I prefer the Aramaic translation, it reads "Timeless truth, I tell you: 'whoever believes in me, those works which I have done he will also do, and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to the presence of my Father.' " According to Christ Jesus we all have the potential to be a Master as he was and is of this plane of existence.

Now about our emotions. Many people confuse feeling with emotion thinking they are the same, although they are closely related. First a little about feeling. Feeling is one of the five senses of the body known as touch. Feeling is a sensation. When the body is injured it feels pain, or if soothing like a hug feels pleasure, it can feel tickled, itchy, cold, hot, sweaty, or even tired. Let’s say the body is injured and feels pain, this pain is a signal to pay attention, but can also trigger the emotion of fear. There is a broad range of emotions connected with fear, such as anger, rage, anxiety, guilt, shame, sadness and depression.

Joy and love are not considered emotions, these are attributes of God, that we have inherited. We experience this Divine Activity of Spirit through our being, our consciousness, and the results can be felt. Joy is like a surge of Spirit energy that uplifts our consciousness, and we can feel physically lighter, kind of buoyant. I think of a child that is joyfully skipping along, feeling God life to overflowing. When all the Chakras are fully opened the spirit energy is flowing freely, one feels peaceful and is expressing joy.

The activity of love expresses through our consciousness, and therefore may also be felt. Love to me is felt through an open heart center, as God’s energy flows through and out into the world touching others. The more we feel connected to our Source, the more Spirit flows through us as love and joy, and the other attributes as well - harmony, life, power, knowledge, and wisdom.

Our world of experience, our thoughts and perceptions may trigger emotion happy or otherwise. Past experiences recalled from memory may bring back the emotions felt, and be totally relived. The brain doesn’t know the difference of an experience while dreaming or awake; they’re just different phases of reality.

Just imagine having a nightmare that is scary. We’re running away, panting, and the heart is racing. The brain reacts as if it is real and sends messages to the different parts of the body - the adrenalin gets rushing, and the heart pumps faster. Usually at some point we wake ourselves up, and realize it was only a dream, and we calm down.

Then we have what is referred to as buttons, these touchy little things in us that get pushed. Let’s say, as a child, I was frightened in the dark, and today as an adult I’m still afraid to be in the dark, and panic when left alone in the dark, even though it is perfectly safe. I may have forgotten the original incident, but it is still very much alive deep within me, to be re-experienced.

Many times these buttons trigger much anger, although the incident may have been a minor offence. Suppressed emotion will resurface, and is usually misdirected anger and out of proportion to the current incident. Usually we’re not aware that we have these pesky buttons, until we start to become more self aware.

I had this one button, that got triggered when I perceived to have been ignored, or left out. I worked with a Divine Science practitioner who was also a licensed therapist. It was early 1997, my mother was terminally ill and in her last few months of living. I was already going through grief. An incident with my mother occurred that left me feeling rejected and I ran to another room to cry. My practitioner asked me where I felt this pain and what it felt like. I could feel it like a deep ache in my heart and solar plexus. Then she asked me when I first felt this pain. I was able to recall back when I was 13, and then back to 4. I talked about what had happened, and then she asked me again what it felt like. The pain had greatly lessened. I was able to share this with my mother, and it was a healing for both of us.

The next time I felt this kind of pain being triggered, I was able to recognize it as a button reacting, and rationalize that it wasn’t the same incident. It only took a couple of times being conscious of it that the button was gone; the attached emotions had been released and transformed. Bring old memories into the light and the shadows disappear.

Emotions are natural responses to be experienced and released. Suppressed emotion is not natural or healthy, and is how the buttons within us become formed and triggered. The deeper an emotion is suppressed the bigger the response which will surface at some inappropriate time.

Dr. Quimby, referred to as Father of New Thought, used a method in healing by identifying the past experience. He said that a response to a thought would release a chemical into the body, become fixed, and eventually fester much like a sliver under the skin, and manifest as inflammation, illness or dis-ease.

Today he would be considered an intuitive or empathic, as he could tune in and know what had happened to cause the symptoms. When he identified the experience to his patient, this freed the energy, and the healing took place. In about a decade Dr. Quimby healed some 8,000 people using this method. One patient was Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science.

Joel Goldsmith comes to mind. He is remembered as a great mystic and spiritual healer of the 20th century. Joel tells us that our subconscious mind stores much error thought and false beliefs. These are impressed upon us from birth through the collective unconscious. And, this error thought manifests in our lives as experiences of lack, limitation and ill health. When we shed truth on these error thoughts and beliefs, they become nothingness and have no power of their own.

I have found to journal our emotions is a safe tool to release fear and all its expressions, such as anger, sadness, guilt and frustration. And, when followed with affirmative prayer transforms the experience into a gift.

Emotions are powerful energy. I’ve cleaned many kitchens while releasing anger. Mastering our emotions empowers us to use our energy wisely. Certainly not to harm others or our own self. ***

The Four Agreements, A Toltec Wisdom Book by Don Miguel Ruiz, is a practical guide to personal freedom. His book, teaches how to prevent or at least limit negative emotional responses. This book is based on four basic principles, I’ll briefly share each one:

The 1st agreement is: “Be Impeccable with Your Word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.” This is preventive medicine. Speaking isn’t just words spoken, its also all that mind chatter which for most people is 99% negative. Stop before you speak, and ask yourself “Is it helpful, necessary and harmless?” And if so, then you won’t be setting yourself up for undesirable consequences.

The 2nd agreement is: “Don’t Take Anything Personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.”

Now we begin to take responsibility for our emotions. Let’s say we’re driving down the street, and someone starts yelling at us because we’re in their way. Its not about us! Its about what is going on in their head. I eventually learned in my long commutes to work, that instead of getting angry back or feeling fear, to reason that they must be running late to work and that their boss may be upset with them, or they had an upsetting morning. I learned to pray for them. I would begin to recognize the divine within them. A powerful statement for me is, “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.”

The 3rd agreement is: “Don’t Make Assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.” How often we find that we had misinterpreted what someone had said, or their intention.

Just by the way someone can look at us, we can make a judgement. An instant assumption, and a word hasn’t even been spoken – only a look. Yet we have no idea what is going on in someone else’s mind – but we read a lot into body language and react to it. Stop - Look - Listen, and then question until you are clear. You may not like what you hear, but at least you know what was meant. Then you have a choice in how you respond.

The 4th agreement is: “Always Do Your Best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse, and regret.” We set ourselves up for unhappy responses when we do a sloppy job, break promises, be late or take long breaks or personal calls. So many times, I’ve heard people complain about their work, and then being surprised when let go.

***Its all about matching energy. Emotions are a powerful source of energy. How we use this energy is up to us. Holding on, or stuffing our emotions is self-destructive, and limits the quality of our life.

Emotions allowed to be experienced safely and released become our gifts. A good cry is so very healthy in releasing stuck emotions. We don’t even need to know why we’re crying. Laughing is such a great release too, and we can fake our laugh until its real. So is meditation, affirmative prayer, deep breathing, and our dreams.

Christ Jesus demonstrated the calming of emotions in the following story in Luke 8:22-25, paraphrased. Jesus and his disciples were crossing the lake when a windy storm rose suddenly on the lake, and the boat was near sinking. Now Christ Jesus had fallen asleep, and the disciples went to him saying “Our Teacher, our Teacher, we are perishing.” Jesus got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and instantly all was calm. And he said to them, Where is your faith? But as they were frightened, they wondered, saying one to another, O who is this man, who even commands the winds and the waves and the sea obey him?

Now for the metaphysical interpretation of this story as it means to our soul’s development. A boat represents our soul’s body; thoughts, feelings, and emotions. They are crossing a body of water; a body of water such as a sea, ocean, or lake represents our subconscious mind of thoughts emotions. This crossing represents a transition in consciousness.

The windy storm represents a collection of negative thoughts and fearful emotions that imbalance a persons sense of well-being. The disciples represent our 12 powers centers; faith, will, understanding, imagination, zeal, power, love, wisdom, order, strength, elimination, and life, and when these powers are all realized, out of which comes the Christ consciousness.

The windy storm sinking the boat, represents our mental and emotional state being overwhelmed with fearful emotions. Thus our 12 power centers, instead of being active and balanced within, have become focused on the outer appearances and full of fear. Our emotions are overtaking us. The Christ within is off duty so to speak. Then we are reminded to go to our teacher, our Christ Self, and awaken that part of our self.

In awakening to our Christ Self, we realize the nothingness of the appearance, the non power of the negative thoughts and fearful emotions. And the Light of Truth is revealed, and all is calm. We are to be masters of our own ship, of our emotions and thoughts, and the appearances will become as nothingness. In the midst of any storm of life, I will say “The Christ goes before me making the crooked roads straight.” In doing so I’m turning it all over and releasing it for a higher good to come forth. And so it is!