“I love the feeling of the fresh air on my face and the wind blowing through my hair.” (Evel Knievel)
The primary somatosensory cortex and the brainstem nuclei are important regions in our brain that help us generate feelings and emotions. The brain’s complexity should help us increase our faith in God!
Feeling screening is a technique used in psychoanalysis, and it helps people get in touch with their deepest self through their feelings. This can be seen as an experience of rediscovery and a cognitive journey of self-exploration. St. Ignatius of Loyola always invites individuals to pay attention to their deepest spiritual movements and feel what is going on within themselves. This method can help us uncover God’s voice or presence through our passions, desires, gifts, and even our shortcomings. Feeling screening can aid in pointing us towards the road to freedom.
Let us discover how to engage what we feel while screening ourselves to more clearly experience the greater glory of God in our lives and in the world around us. Take a moment and to screen your feelings and recognize God in the deep recesses of your soul. Close your eyes and relax as best you can and ask yourself:
- What am I feeling now?
- Is there a significance to that feeling?
- Using your senses, what is the smell, the touch, or the sound of your feeling?
- Does it conger up a memory, an idea, a moment, a sentiment, an emotion?
- Consider what God might be saying to you or inviting you to look more closely.
- Give thanks to God for the gift of feelings.
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Video Production by Matthew Bjorklund, SJ