When I was training to become a therapist I was told, “Lewis,
you think too
much, you should feel more!” So I was offered the forced choice of FEEL
more and THINK less -- to become a mentally healthy person!
(That has never made good sense to me - mental health instruction not
withstanding - that a person has to give up something to get something. I
have always experienced change and growth as an additive process. The
dysfunctional process most often shrinks for lack of attention as adding in
the new functional process and procedure adds comfort.)
Now I have the forced choice of “FEEL” or “THINK.” So I place an
“X” on the
line between the two choices (required of me) where I experience myself
most of the time.
(this is an intuitive guesstimate - this is not a test)
THINKING was encouraged as a child, FEELING was not.
THINKING served me a child, expressing FEELING did not.
THINKING was more “comfortable”, as a child, than FEELING
THINKING was safe, FEELINGS, as a child were dangerous
This is not about “right” or “wrong”, but an awareness exercise
for me about
my balance with THINK / FEEL as a child, and now as a grown-up.
So I place an “X” where I find a personal balance point about
how much I
estimate that THINKING actually does run my life
and how much FEELING
actually does run my life, on average,
for the past year or two. |
