With your list compiled from yesterday’s instructions, now begin to examine your list. Don’t try to do this next part in one sitting but over the next several days, take a few minutes to choose a couple of positive emotions and a couple of negative emotions and reflect on the effect if these feelings became exaggerated in your life. It is natural to feel anger at times but what happens if anger begins to dominate your thinking and actions?
Once you have examined several sets of emotions, both positive and negative, you are ready for the next step. Look at your list and any other emotions that come to mind, and identify those emotions that you feel are potentially the biggest problem for you personally. It can be pleasant to have someone recognize a skill that you have demonstrated. It feels good for someone to compliment you on a sermon you preached or your creative ideas for church development. At the same time, narcissism or seeing everything through the lens of how it affects you can be unhealthy. See if you can identify at least four natural human urges that can easily become problematic for you personally.
Now comes the naming part. Remember, it does not make you a horrible person because you have these feelings and urges. I can easily have my attention distracted by a beautiful woman. I wish that wasn’t such an immediate response and that I paid less attention to this outward appearance. However, I have discovered that when I can name that emotional response to myself, it gives me much more control over my behavior. If you have worked through the previous suggestions, you now have three to five areas to which you want to pay particular attention. Now, for the next month, be particularly aware when situations come up in which these feelings normally occur. As you are involved in this situation, name the feelings you are experiencing. When that man criticizes my position on a particular subject, that makes me feel angry. (the subject of whether something makes you feel a certain way or you choose to respond to it with that feeling is a subject for another time.)
Over time, I think that you will discover that you have much more authority over your daimons when you name them for yourself.
