emotions provide information. they don't provide all information, but they provide important information. that information tells us about what is happening to and within ourselves in response to something

they can't tell us *why* that response is happening, or is the way it is. we may not even know what it is we're responding to! and they can't tell us whether we're right or wrong about questions of fact

but God gave them to us! to say "something is not right here," or "something here is pleasant to me" or "something here makes me feel unsafe" - sadness and happiness and fear can all tell us really important things. trying to use only the head and never the heart will always fail

it has to be both. our emotions and our responses don't develop in a vacuum. I may be afraid in a given situation, not because my instincts perceive a real danger, but because I have been *taught* to understand certain people, or places, or ideas as dangerous to me

I may be sad because I have lost something, and that sadness tells me something true about myself - but it doesn't tell me whether or not it was ever right to begin with for me to have the thing that I lost

and I may feel happy - but is it because I'm in a context that promotes genuine flourishing? or because I have successfully shielded myself from difficult truths?

some people need to hear to rely on their emotions more. some less, perhaps. but all of us need to understand what they're *for*, and what they can and can't tell us. they're trustworthy sources of knowledge - and it only seems otherwise if we ask more of them than they can bear.

ignore them at your peril, and woe to those who tell others to ignore them. overrely on them at your peril, and woe to those who tell others to overrely on them

(all of this is a long way of saying "I get what people are trying to do when they tell ppl who've been told not to trust their hearts to trust their hearts, but if I just trusted my heart I'd be dead, so let's temper this a little bit")

like, 90% of the time the only truth that my sadness is pointing to is "you've got terrible depression" and 70% of the time all my fear is reflecting to me is the reality of my anxiety disorder