Question on feelings.
 

A few days ago, I heard a pastor preaching and he said "sometimes our feelings lie to us." The topic was "denial."

What exactly does this mean?

NH7

Easiest to just give examples
Feeling jealous when you have a faithful partner
Feeling guilt when you have done nothing wrong
Fearing something that most likely will never happen
Feeling sad when you're life is actually going well
Feeling unworthy when you are far from that

In some contexts, feelings = intuition.

I think that's what he was talking about, one's intuition can lie to them.

Negative self-talk thoughts we can have. We're not pretty, we're stupid, we're not good enough, etc. Those thoughts are lies too.

How about, Oh, it's not that bad, s/he hasn't beat me... Or, s/he's not addicted to ___, he just likes to do it everyday...

Just a few more examples...

Feelings are just feelings and NOT facts was one of the top lessons I learned in Al Anon.

It used to be that my feelings told me things all the time that I chose to believe as a truth:

I feel fat
I feel unworthy
I feel suspicious
I feel anxious that something horrible is going to happen

It was also enlightening to learn that feelings aren't good or bad, they just ARE. I was brought up to believe that anger and pride were BAD feelings. It's not the feeling that is "bad" but rather what we do with them.

My feelings used to lie to me all the time, back when I thought they were defining me, giving me my truths. Now I know they are just feelings.