Day in and day out I hear it over and over and over – thinking over feeling. Emotions are bad. Emotions are old. Control your emotions. And some days I just can’t take it anymore. The avalanche of human brain research proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that feelings are more powerful than thoughts. (This doesn’t make thoughts useless just way less important that we think – hence our tag-line ReThink Thinking!). The very latest research strongly suggests that even our eyes, our eyesight, our visual cortex – will NOT work without the proper “dose” of emotional neuronal activity.

But take it from another angle. Remember the old and not-so-old saying “Actions speak louder than words”? Well we all know it is true right? But why is it? Words are cognitive, they are intellectual. Actions demonstrate how we really feel – regardless of what we say.

But this leaves the big question to be – how do you move through from feeling bad when feeling bad about something – anything – feels bad?

#1 Allow yourself to actually physically feel bad for a little bit. Believe me, it won’t kill you.

#2 Pay attention to how it does feel – in your body and in your metaphorical heart.

#3 Ask yourself, what is causing the feeling … and keep asking that until you feel a wave of relief. Believe me, if you do this iteratively – and don’t settle for the much less powerful attempts to talk yourself out of (or anesthetize your way around) – sooner or later, you will realize “The REAL reason I feel (fill in the blank – angry, sad, frustrated …) is ________________ and wow! now that I know that A) I feel better B) I have a much better (and different idea) of what I need to do!

Feelings and emotions are information. Feeling tired tells you you need rest, hungry – need food. Angry – something is wrong. Afraid – something to consider. Every time we recast our feelings and emotions as this kind of data is one more time that we move further forward faster. Ironically, this feeling thing also clears the cognitive “thinking” part of your brain so that it can do its more linear work.

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