A transformative exploration of embracing emotions rather than suppressing them. Drawing from scientific research, biblical insight, and personal anecdotes, Allen guides readers through a five-step process to acknowledge, understand, and accept their feelings. Challenging the belief that emotions are sinful, the book advocates for emotional maturity to foster deeper connections with God and others. It encourages readers to sit with complex emotions, offering a pathway to discover the depth of God's love and compassion within these feelings. Ultimately, Allen promotes the idea that emotions are not something to fix, but rather something to feel, leading to a closer relationship with God.

✨“We can’t be emotional healthy if we refuse to be emotionally honest.”✨

Jennie’s authenticity always shine’s through, but her passion and conviction to see others set free from dismissing their emotions is also evident. It was encouraging to witness the transformation her husband, Zac, experienced, even as she wrote this book. Their personal stories are woven throughout the steps making the strategies very approachable. I also just really enjoy her writing style. It’s very simple and colloquial, creating a connection with the reader as if she were actually talking to you in the room. This book is a perfect companion to “Get Out of Your Head.”

Thank you @waterbrookmultnomah & @netgalley for the eARC 🥰 This is a powerful book and I’m so thankful I got the chance to read it.

Perfect for you if you like:
Honest perspective
Practical strategies
Re-examining your understanding of emotions

Similar to:
Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist
Uninvited by Lisa TerKeurst
Get Out of Your Head by Jennie Allen

One thing that I really like about Jennie Allen is that she's real! She tells it like it is, even if it isn't favorable to her. I also like that we have the same first name. ;) Anyway, I recommend this book! If you're not great at sharing your feelings, or even thinking about or talking about what you're feeling, this book can help.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance e-copy of this book! All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

3.5/5

Jennie writes this book from her experience meeting with a counselor and her own research/journey of trying to learn about her own feelings. Jennie shares a lot that she has experienced personally in the last few years in regards to her emotions (fear of losing her husband, feeling abandoned by her daughter wanting to move, etc)- I think that people will really relate to her personal story parts of the book. She shares not only her experiences, but her friends/family/coworkers experience with feelings too (her husbands long struggle with depression). Overall she offers general advice and insight to readers on how to walk through what you may be feeling- notice, name, feel, share, and choose. She also shares big four emotions and how they could be playing out in your life with good questions to ask yourself. I loved her learned experience of sharing feelings within community and how they learned to be present and listening with their responses instead of fixing each other (ex: responding with "I feel ______" instead of "I think ______" when someone has just shared something with you.

I think this would be a good intro book for those who have no idea where to start with navigating their feelings (mainly negative feelings as is this books focus- even though she talks about Joy very briefly). This book is more conversational about her life/learns than research- though some quotes and data are sprinkled in there. I appreciated her mention of focusing on physical health as well as your mental health- not just one or the other.


tbh wish it would have included more scripture. Main spiritual theme/takeaway for readers is "God created feelings and expressed feelings so we should view them as good."


Thank you NetGalley and WaterBrook & Multnomah for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Book will be available on 2/13/24!

Back in the ‘70s, Mr. Spock was my hero. I wanted to be a Vulcan so I didn’t have to deal with emotions. So Jennie Allen’s Untangle Your Emotions hit me where it hurts. In a good way! It’s the perfect companion to her previous book, Get Out of Your Head. With the pair, she walks you through taking your thoughts captive and managing your emotions.
She does a great job of showing that emotions aren’t sinful, but what we do with them can lead us into sin.
Emotions are a gift. A gift that can be mishandled. This book is an encouraging read for anyone who struggles with messy emotions.
In the first part, the author grounds her work in the truth of God’s Word, giving a biblical framework for managing emotions. Then things get dicey. As she says, dealing with emotions can get awkward. And she’s a self-proclaimed over-sharer. For someone who prefers keeping the messy at arm’s length – awkward. She’s real and raw with the emotional struggles her family has had. AWKWARD. But – “We can’t be emotionally healthy if we refuse to be emotionally honest.”
You mean saying, “I’m fine, it’s fine,” isn’t okay when you aren’t fine? Fine. In this epidemic of anxiety and depression, having the skills to work through our emotions is essential. And Jennie Allen has written a great book to help you do just that.

Not for me personally but I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read this book. Thank you to WaterBrook & Multnomah and NetGalley.

"God feels! He feels big feelings, as we will see from Genesis to Revelation and he made us to feel, created it all inside us. So, emotions can’t be evil. They must be good gifts if God feels them.”

What it’s About:
Practical guidance on developing emotional maturity and deepening your connection with God and others.

This one comes out February 13th!

What I thought:
I loved this book and it was the perfect companion for the last two books of hers that I have read. I am hoping her podcast does a bookclub with this like they did with Find Your People

How it made me feel: 🥰👏🏻🙌🏼

Similar Titles:
- Find Your People
- Get Out of Your Head

Untangle Your Emotions is a book about learning how to feel and to express your feelings in a healthy (and Biblical) way.

Major chapters that stood out for me involve learning how to feel with the help and support of others. Jennie Allen delves into this in a way that had me soaking in every word. We as a society are too quick to ditch the village and do everything on our own, but we weren’t made to be alone.

Jennie uses the Bible and science through research and statistics to show the reader how to feel in the healthiest way possible. I also loved the stories of Jesus and how He expressed His feelings.

Parts of the book felt like they dragged on with the same information, but the payout was worth it. I learned a lot and would recommend this to anyone struggling.

I received this book from Netgalley for my honest review.

Jennie’s writing is always honest and vulnerable. I loved Get Out of Your Head and was excited to read this book. I think it’s important to talk about emotional health from a Biblical viewpoint, and I had so many takeaways from this one.

Wow!!! I feel like this book was written for me. It’s like Jennie was having a conversation directly with me. I resonate so much with the fixer attitude. I also am one to suppress and hide my emotions. It is something I am actively working on, so reading this book came at a perfect time.
One thing she talked about that really hit home for me was that anxiety is not a result of lack of faith. It is a struggle as a Christian not to feel ashamed when experiencing anxiety or depression because so often people are told it is due to a lack of faith, but to hear her declare it as not true, using many examples from scripture, is so reassuring and exactly what so many people need to hear.
I felt so seen reading this book, and also relieved to know I’m not the only one who struggles making sense of my emotions.
Thank you NetGalley and WaterBrook & Multnomah for the opportunity to read this book before it is released.

Untangle Your Emotions
by Jennie Allen
Pub Date: FEb.13, 2024
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest o0pinion.
I was drawn to this book because our church has a women's study group based on other of Allen's bo0ks and people really like it. Allen is a new author for me and I really like her.
The New York Times bestselling author of Get Out of Your Head provides a revolutionary path to embracing a healthy relationship with your emotions, one that leads to life-giving connection with God and others as well as to a richer understanding of yourself.
This book could save you thousands of dollars of therapy. REAd it! Put into action! Watch the positive change in your life.
5 stars

I received an arc from NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.
This is a great author and bases her books on the Bible and scripture. A great book to apply to your everyday living.
There were a couple of times that I questioned the author on her feelings and how she said she never felt this or that and kind of put down her family. Those sections were hard for me to understand and relate.

As I cracked open Jennie Allen’s Untangle Your Emotions, I was hopeful for some guidance in navigating through the chaotic, knotted-up ball that describes our feelings. Overall, her book offers some great, general advice. Feel your feelings before you attempt to simply fix your feelings. We were created to feel, and so our feelings can be gifts from God Himself. Her acknowledgment that we are all feelers was also deeply appreciated. (I always cringe when someone says they’re not emotional. No, we all have emotions even if we’re not all expressive in the same ways.) Her attempt to remind the Church that emotions in and of themselves need not be sin—it is what we do with our emotions that can lead to sin—is a poignant truth we need to acknowledge. It cannot suffice to simply tell someone, “Well, you shouldn’t feel that way,” and leave it at that. At best, it’s unhelpful, and at worst, it’s even more harmful. Particularly helpful was the second section of her book where she framed an approach to notice, name, feel, share, and choose our emotions as a method to untangle them. I found the chapter The Vocabulary of Emotion (naming your emotions) especially helpful, as she named the big four emotions and their secondary counterparts.

That said, I concluded Allen’s book wanting. For starters, while she does dip into the emotion of joy/happiness, like so many other books on our feelings, there was an overwhelming emphasis on the, for lack of a better term, negative emotions. I wholeheartedly agree: it’s okay to not be okay. Let’s be careful to not overcorrect and allow the pendulum to swing too far either: it’s okay to be okay. It’s okay to have joy and happiness and peace and comfort. As I said, she dips into this topic, but I would like more on it from a book that attempts to untangle all our emotions and not just the difficult ones. Furthermore, this was my first book by Jennie Allen, and while I know her conversational tone is her signature, it was almost a bit too much for me. A bit too informal of a writing style, and it wore on me by the end of the book. There was a lot of build up throughout the chapters with what I felt to be little delivery. Yes, Allen’s advice is good and true, but it also wasn’t anything new or all too profound. One chapter suggests exercising more, sleeping more, reducing screen time, and drinking more water. All of this is great advice, and yet also a bit elementary. Lastly, I would have loved some more Scriptural application. We got a lot of information from what her therapist has to say (which is great, by the way), but not as much about what God has to say. Since God is the one who created our emotions, I wish Allen shared more about how God would have us navigate through those emotions in a God-honoring way.

In the end, I’d give this book a 3/5 stars as it gives some good truths but ultimately falls a little flat.

I’m grateful to NetGalley and WaterBrook & Multnomah for the advanced readers copy in return for my honest review.

We all have feelings, and sometimes it seems like they are a giant ball of yarn all knotted up. This book looks at taking those feelings and untangling them. Letting yourself sit in the emotions, not pushing them away. The perfect balance of science, faith, and feeling. I’m always impressed with the way this author sprinkles in the word of god without feeling preachy! This book covers friendships, therapy, medicine, and allowing yourself to experience a full ray of emotions. I loved the personal stories and the practical steps.

What I thought about the Book:
I loved it! While I was reading, I felt like I was having a conversation with Jennie. Through her writing, the author radiates compassion toward her readers and a desire to help her readers find emotional health. This book kept me engaged and was a fast-paced read.

What Stood Out to Me:

I appreciated the author's note on mental health. The author was not shy in sharing her experience in therapy, and she encourages readers to get outside help if they are deeply struggling.

One pathway to emotional healing is sharing our feelings with others. The author discussed how to start communicating our emotions with others and in response to others.
She mentioned that many of us often share our thoughts in response to someone sharing a struggle rather than sharing how their story made us feel. She states that communicating how we feel upon hearing someone's struggle helps them feel seen and understood- how powerful!
This information was a takeaway for me, and I cannot wait to start communicating my feelings more than my thoughts. I believe this step will build more connections with others and strengthen relationships.

Jennie noted the scripture when Jesus wept. Her insight into why Jesus wept, though Jesus knew he would raise Lazarus from the dead, felt powerful to me. The author explained that Jesus wept to model sharing in each other's burdens.

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." - Galatians 6:2

Jennie mentions that emotions are not sinful, but what we do with them can lead to sin.

I loved her insight into how our emotions help us to connect with God and others.

True to Jennie Allen form, Untangle Your Emotions, is a honest a direct look at the emotions we experience. She explains how not recognizing and expressing our emotions stymie is, ways many of us push our emotions down, and then goes into how we can improve our ability to notice and work through our emotions.
Jennie Allen backs up her research with Scripture and often points out how awesome it is that science so often follows Scripture. There are much wisdom to be found in Untangle Your Emotions.

I LOVED this book so much! I wish I had this years ago. It helped to heal my relationship with my emotions and set me on a path for a healthier relationship with God. Jennie always writes something that speaks to my soul and her book “Anything” has been one I return to time & time again. I will be rereading “Get Out of Your Head” shortly and am excited to apply the new insights Jennie shared here. So good & highly recommend this one!

Jennie Allen is a fantastic author, speaker, and founder of IF Gathering. I've enjoyed her previous books, so I was looking forward to this one as well. "Untangle Your Emotions: Naming What You Feel and Knowing What To Do About It" is Allen's newest book, which centers around the assertion that our feelings are not meant to be fixed or beaten back. Rather, we need to be willing to listen to what our feelings are trying to tell us. Our feelings are important, as they are what helps us connect to others and to God. While oftentimes Christians are convinced that having feelings is sinful, Allen encourages us that feelings themselves are not sinful, but rather, it's what we do with them that can be sinful. She asserts that, in order to untangle our emotions, we much notice, name, feel, share and choose them.

This was an excellent resource for anyone who wants to understand how to deal with the emotions they feel. This was a very helpful and encouraging book, and one I would highly recommend! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Feelings and emotions have long been regarded as taboo for the Church. Basically we are taught to just get over our heartbreak and disappointments and move on. I have always wondered why God gave us feelings if God didn’t want us to feel anything. In reading the latest from Jennie Allen, “Untangle Your Emotions,” I saw and learned a different perspective on feelings and it’s not all bad. I highly recommend this to ones struggling with striving to cover up their feelings.

I received an advanced readers copy from Waterbrook-Multnomah and Netgalley. Opinions are my own.

I've read a number of books on emotional health and wellness but thought this one was powerful coming from Jennie Allen. With her engaging writing and vulnerable sharing and simple to follow steps towards growing in emotional health, this book will be a staple on my bookshelf and quick to recommend for a long time. Thank you Jennie Allen for your humility in sharing some of your personal growth in this area. And thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy.

Had a hard time knowing what to rate this and maybe it’s because I had an internal battle the entire time I was reading it. So much I agree with because the church is really bad at letting people express their feelings sometimes. However, I did find this book pretty repetitive and awfully similar but not as good as Get Out of Your Head which is also by Jennie Allen. I technically give this 3.5 starts but rounded up for Goodreads.

Thank you to WaterBrook & Multnomah and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!