Your conscious and unconscious minds may act like adversaries, attempting to pull you in two directions. They are meant to work together to enrich your life.
Proving that you are more than your thoughts
David Brooks, past senior editor at The Weekly Standard, contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly, now New York Times columnist just wrote The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement.
He went from being a highly trained intellectual to a man who was fascinated by the emotional and unconscious connection to our behavior. He might be able to write about emotions, but he admits he has yet to develop the depth of expertise with emotions that he has with his mind. Quoting his wife, concerning him writing about emotions, he says, “Writing about emotions is like Gandhi writing about gluttony.”
In this PPS short video he lays out an eloquent argument for connecting to your emotions.
It’s about emotions…
Please use this blog to not only make that emotional connection, but learn how to harness the power of your emotions to create the life you want. As with David Brooks, men are looking for what is missing. He found the what. Now he needs to find the how and do it.
The research on the unconscious, emotions and the body’s connection to these aspects are not new to many men and women. Humans started out connected. We are now consciously getting back what we never really lost. There are many ways to experience being back home. One is speaking what you feel, as awkward as it might be. Another is to get good bodywork – it will set you free.
As David Brooks says, “We have a choice to educate our emotions.” Use the tools suggested on this site to help you train yourself to be as emotionally adept as you are intellectually. David’s book will give you the reasons why it is beneficial to focus on your emotions – it will appease your mind, allow it to surrender a little control.
Take a risk, learn to strengthen your emotional intelligence just as you would strengthen your body for your favorite sport. Train it, use it and enjoy it. Know that ingrained emotions trump reason. It’s not your mind that truly makes decisions – it’s your emotions and your unconscious. Get them on the same team.
So, how will you train as a team?