FEELINGS play a large role in human behavior and well-being. Researchers have drawn parallels between emotional feelings and bodily health. Yet feelings may at times seem beyond control. If fear is producing a prejudice, depression holding back progress, or a sense of injustice prompting hurt or a desire for revenge, you may acknowledge that you ought to eliminate such impulses. Still you may think, "But I can't help how I feel."

To heal rather than merely control such feelings requires recognizing Soul, God, as the one true source of feelings. The power of such acknowledgment is illustrated in this comment about Christ Jesus in Science and Health: "Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forever manifested through man, the Master healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving a better understanding of Soul and salvation" (p.210).

In summarizing God's law and the commandments, Christ Jesus taught: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Mark 12:30, 31). To have no other Mind or Soul but God is to find God to be the only real animus for motives and feelings.

Soul, God, imparts joy, mercy, stability, spontaneity. These are our genuine feelings. Therefore, it's natural to feel good. Our real nature, true manhood and womanhood, is spiritual. Man is the expression of God, not controlled by nerves, emotional impulses, and reaction. Nor are temper, anger, grief, insensitivity, and injustice intrinsic to man.

The Bible urges, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within. He also described how to attain the harmony of this kingdom: "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away" (Matt.13:47,48). What a graphic illustration! When trawling for fish, one examines each catch and throws back everything that is useless or illegal. To have but one Mind, that which Christ Jesus demonstrated, enables one to examine thoughts and feelings and throw out any that are not good and acceptable to God!

The supremacy of Soul gives mastery over feelings and reactions. Sensitivity is not in matter, not chemical or physical. Genuine feelings come from Soul. This recognition acts as a law of restoration to normal feeling. It heals hurt feelings, for feelings from Soul are neither hypersensitive nor insensitive, neither paralyzed by fear nor palsied by hesitancy and doubt.

This fact prompts a reexamination of the current attitude that it is OK, even therapeutic, to vent rage. There's no place for violence or injustice in kingdom of heaven! So man under Soul's jurisdiction is free of anger, resentment, retaliation. Motivated and animated only by Soul, one finds it easier to recognize the same as true of others. If it seems that someone or something dear is being victimized or threatened, that taking offense is justified and that to do otherwise would be hypocritical, then one can ask, "What is true to my own Soul-inspired individuality?" The answer will impel one to do what is truly honest, to reflect Soul in calmness, steadfastness, and goodwill. These qualities characterize each individual's real, spiritual selfhood.

I once felt undermined and oppressed by a senior co-worker. Understanding that neither the situation nor my resentment of it was in harmony with Soul, I determined to recognize him as already included in God's kingdom. I made the effort to remind myself every time he came into my thought that he was the perfect child of God. At first this took persistence, but soon the whole atmosphere and relationship changed to one of cordial cooperation and mutual respect. When I relocated a short time later, his unsolicited recommendation helped me obtain a new position.

To let Soul rule our thoughts actually changes how we feel. In fact, when our feelings don't express the harmony of Soul, they aren't really ours. We don't have to entertain them. Instead, we can choose to let Soul govern our feelings, and rejoice.