Feelings are Facts -- But. . .

Years ago I learned that "feelings are facts".  Yeah, I am quoting my teacher/coach/facilitator.  He was correct, of course.  Too many of us were ignoring the feelings we had/have and pretending they weren't influencing us or others.  Feelings exist, they have tremendous power, and they are addictive.

Feelings give life zest, make imagination soar, help us rise above circumstances that might inhibit our acting in useful ways.  On the other hand, feelings crush us with despair, cause us to inject stuff into our bodies that destroy us, motivate us to eat poorly, or to fail to eat at all.  Feelings can move us to decide we are hopeless, we cannot succeed, or life is better when we are "out of control".

Feelings are facts.  Even putting it that way tells me something important.  Facts are important to . . . thinking.  I am convinced that thinking should dominate our being while not excluding feeling and feelings.

A teenager feels and feels and feels.  She feels she is right about nearly everything so she dresses slightly even though the weather is awful and she will be playing baseball outside.  She confesses a year or so later that she has never been so cold in her life.  The next day she dresses just as lightly.  Thinking has been fueled by feeling, dominated by feelings of "I dress like this and I want to" and thinking strategically has been shelved.  She gets payoffs.

A thinking human person would balance the payoff of "dressing how I want to" with "OMG -- I am so cold" and "I can't move fast enough to be a good player because I a so cold."  The thinking human person would balance probable payoffs and choose the behavior that gets the most desired payoffs.

Oh.  That's thinking ahead, something a person dominated by feelings generally hates to do.  (Notice the feeling verb in the previous sentence.)

My musing, my thinking, my concluding is that feelings are facts, but we humans need to harness them to the brain and think our way to desired payoffs.  Think ahead.  Develop habits that give priority to thinking without dissing feelings.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.