Thinking & Feeling…or Feeling & Thinking, Part 2

Thinking & Feeling…or Feeling & Thinking 2

In Part 1 we considered the difference between thinking and feeling, iterated the need for both, and asserted that thinking is irrelevant before observing our feeling.

And here’s why.

It makes no sense to think BEFORE you feel.  Because how do you even know what to think about unless you know how you want to feel?

Yes, I’ve concluded, through a careful thinking process BTW, that all thinking should be done in service to feeling.  And I’m a thinker, so that should tell you how much I mean what I say here.

Thinking is useless without taking stock of your current feelings and asking which you would like instead.

Look at my signature framework, which I call the Metaphysics of Leadership and Creation:

The process starts in the lower right hand corner with the highly embodied and fundamental experience of the individual.  And the individual (who could be you, me, or anyone else) experiences existence by feeling it.  And this feeling is motivating.  We are motivated to move away from frust-rations, which feel bad, and toward aspi-rations, which feel good.  Simple as that.

That’s where the process ALWAYS starts.  What bad feeling do you have?  What good feeling do you want instead?  What is keeping the bad feeling stuck, and what is in the way of the good feeling?

Do you see thinking?  It’s very small, isn’t it?  Upper left hand corner.  Our Purpose is discerned by a process of feeling.  And then a process of visioning creates leadership.   Then, and only then, should we put our thinking caps on and begin to generate strategy.  Otherwise, our thinking is wasted.  In all times and places.

Thinking is special, and it’s one of the things that makes humans special.  The ancient Greeks knew this, which is why both Plato and Aristotle, each according to their own respective theories, associated rationality so thoroughly with virtue and the peak of humanity.  And I agree with them.

But unless we observe, accept, and nonjudgmentally connect with our feelings, our deep feelings of embodied experience, the thinking is misapplied.  And that’s one of the lessons I have realized I am here to teach people.  I had to learn it first, because I love thinking, but I’ve realized there’s a certain time and place where it’s helpful, and that’s been my personal journey.

Don’t think before you feel.

Feel before you think.  Your results will thank you.

By the way, this means you MUST feel your feelings. A lot of people avoid feeling their feelings. And I’m one of them. But you can’t find true peace and alignment unless you do this first, and are honest about what you are feeling. I know, I know. I don’t like it either 😉😄