There’s another little paradox around the inside-out understanding that it’s easy to trip up on, and it’s to do with ‘good’ feelings.
You see, you’ll often hear people like me pointing out how helpful it is to be in tune with our feelings, because they’re a really good indicator of what that trickster thought is doing, in the moment.
- So a feeling of stress is a reflection of stressful thinking… and can be let go
- The feeling of an urge is just a thought… and it doesn’t have to be acted upon
- A feeling of anger is a reflection of angry thought… and it doesn’t have to be taken seriously.
None of these are rules, per se (there are no rules), but it’s good to know what’s going on. It gives us options, offers some perspective and helps us to understand our behaviours.
And while we’re on the very shaky ground of labelling emotions, a mind might look at the three examples above and consider those to be on the ‘bad’ side of the equation… leading to a 3 Principles slogan you might have heard, that can serve as a guide of sorts in these situations: