When You Feel Broken or Incomplete

Three different designs of clouds represent the conflicting emotions we can experience when we feel broken or incomplete.

When You Feel Broken or Incomplete

Feeling broken or incomplete is difficult. For that matter, feeling several emotions at one time is difficult enough. Emotions can affect our lives in very unexpected ways—especially if we’re unaware that we have them. When we feel broken or incomplete, that sense of brokenness or incompletion influences our whole day. Every big and little decision we make, every critical and unimportant action we take, every thought we think, and memory we dredge up is filtered by how we feel. I’ll guess you’ve experienced this concept. But what about emotions that we are not aware that we’re experiencing?

From where do some feelings of being broken come?

If we search our minds, bodies, and souls right now, we will probably notice we are feeling several emotions all at the same time. Additionally, we might even find that some of those emotions conflict with each other inside of ourselves.

For example, there are sweets everywhere this time of year, and it’s socially acceptable to overeat during the holidays. Additionally, you probably like to eat. Yet if you overeat, you’ll likely gain weight, and you might feel uncomfortable with that added weight. Finally, if your friends or family offer you food or sweets, you might feel rude if you don’t accept their gifts. So just from the thought of holiday food, you could feel pressure to eat more than you prefer, pleasure from eating good food, pressure about gaining weight, and pressure about feeling rude. I will guess that you’ll decide what to do based on which pressure you feel the strongest at any given moment.

The danger to our authentic selves comes in when we’re unaware that we’re feeling more than one emotion. If we act out on the pressure we feel the strongest, we may satisfy that pressure. However, what about our emotions hidden underneath the other stresses? The feelings we don’t know we are feeling and on which we are not acting? If this is you, I suggest you’ll start looking down on yourself, and you may not know why. You’ll feel broken or incomplete, and those feelings will influence your whole day.

We Are Emotional Beings

We are emotional beings. We feel several emotional pressures all at once all the time. It takes practice to learn how to discern all the feelings we’re experiencing into something we can understand and manage.

Thus, I recommend we start simple. Start with consistently asking yourself if you’re feeling anything. Search your mind, body, and soul for your emotions. I’ll give you a hint; the answer is yes. You are experiencing many emotions all at the same time. If you think the answer is no, keep searching your heart. You will find them if you look for them.

When you’re feeling broken, here is one thing you can do with those feelings

Once you start finding the many emotions you’re experiencing, you’ll understand why you’re feeling broken or incomplete. It’s difficult to feel complete when so many conflicting emotions are racing through our bodies. Yet, we are emotional beings. We cannot stop experiencing emotions. Instead, we can learn to use them to our benefit.

Your dreams go beyond how you feel. So you have to look beyond how you feel to accomplish your goals. This going beyond can seem like a challenge, but it’s not impossible. It requires practice and patience with yourself. When you feel an emotion, use it as a trigger to look deeper into your heart. Instead of taking action based on how you feel, use your feelings as a warning to wait for your possibly hidden and real desire to rise.

Your emotions want action now, but your dreams are frequently more subtle. Your emotions don’t care if you’re living your goals; they want action (I talk about this in my book, Life Is a Lazy Susan). To accomplish your dreams, you have to know what you really, Really, REALLY want and then wait for the emotions to subside so you can see beyond them. It’s not always easy to wait against the pressure to take action, especially if you’re feeling broken or incomplete. But if you want to live your dreams, it’s worth the wait.

Start with asking yourself, am I feeling anything?

May Peace, Joy, and Contentment fill your day.

Updated February 15, 2021

First Posted December 22, 2014

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