What We Feel and What We Think Doesn’t Matter

Try this for controversial:  What we feel and what we think doesn’t matter.  Boy, I’m sure the title alone has scared some people off my web-site.  🙂

This sounds as bad as slapping a baby!  But I want to talk about manifesting for a moment, and I plan to make it clear why feelings and thoughts aren’t always our friends.

Does this sound familiar:  “I am committed to making  or having something new in my life – yet things somehow seem to remain the same.”

So consider, in our lives, for the most part, we have what we have for a reason.  Mostly, what we have is a reflection of our beliefs and expectations.  I am not suggesting that we don’t have circumstances that show up, but how those circumstances affect us is related to what we make them mean.    It isn’t what happens that causes our difficulties, but what we make ‘what happens’ mean that causes our difficulties.

There are mechanisms within us that steer us back onto known highways — even when we hate the highway!   We continue to do the same things, have the same experiences, re-create our beliefs and expectations.  The cycle of re-creation and the domain-collapse model are two ways we generate reoccurring reality.

The “cycle of re-creation” explains how we create beliefs from an experience and thus expect the same experience.  Experience becomes belief, belief becomes expectation, expectation becomes reoccurring experience.  There are a variety of ways that we create what we expect.  But make no mistake: we DO create what we expect.

The “domain collapse” model shows how we create the context that our experience “shows up in” which shapes and confines the experience. The colored experience reinforces the context which further colors the experience such that we don’t experience what is…we experience our context.

Both of these models explain how we create our reality and why we have the same experiences reoccurring.  So what is the way out?

In all cases, we need to create something… we need to create our future.  What does that mean?

I could spend pages and pages on the act of creation.  But even though I like to hear myself talk, and even though there are details and gotchas, let me make this simple:  You declare what you want, and then you take specific actions to “be” what you declared.

Ok, nothing ground-breaking there right?  But now we come to the rub…

As soon as it is time to do something different than you would normally do, you don’t feel like doing it.  Or you “think” something that makes you feel like this action isn’t the thing to do.

So here is the “feeling and thinking” that I said doesn’t matter.  If you listen to what you think, or if you follow your feelings, you will find yourself on the couch, doing what you always did, getting what you always got.

You WILL generate thoughts and feelings to put you back on the old well-worn road of your life.  And if you listen to your thoughts and feelings, you will give up on your new creation.

In the end, your feelings and your thoughts are not your friends; they are working for your limiting beliefs and established contexts.

So I have taken some time to explain why when you say you are going to do something, you should just do it — and not listen to thoughts or feelings that would have you do otherwise.

Again, nothing ground-breaking about keeping your word to yourself.  But perhaps now that you understand why your “thoughts and feelings” are most often NOT helping you change anything in your life, you will be less likely to listen to them.

Now many of you, if you are still reading, might be wondering why feelings and thoughts are used in manifesting and creating — yet I am telling you to avoid them.

I am suggesting that you use feelings and thoughts, not have them use you.   When you choose your feelings and your thoughts, you are creating.   If instead, you are looking to see what you think, or what you feel, then you are in danger of making meaning where it doesn’t belong.  If you watch closely, your feelings and thoughts go all over the place — and it doesn’t mean anything.  It’s like watching weather.  If you don’t like it, wait a bit and it will change.

Be clear however, when it comes time to do something that you are unaccustomed to doing, or doing something that will actually make your life different than you are accustomed to, you can bet that your feelings and thoughts will be trying to throw up a speed bump.

So what you think and what you feel doesn’t matter … unless you are generating thoughts and feelings that propel you towards your goals.

Many people are committed to their personal freedom over and above anything else.  And so often, following feelings feels like being free from domination.  However, I hope that this article gives you the freedom to pursue your goals and dreams and freedom from the domination of your shifting emotional landscape.


6 Responses to What We Feel and What We Think Doesn’t Matter

  1. bobmctx says:

    So if you use the same colors to color your book, the book will look the same. So I have to consciously choose different colors than I am used to , to get a different outcome.

    • peacefuldavid says:

      If you wait until you are sitting with your crayons, you are unlikely to end up with anything different than usual. If you declare that you want something, and sit down to make good on that declaration, then you have the chance to see yourself starting with different options, and having thoughts and feelings that want you to change back to your usual way of doing things.

  2. Jason says:

    This is a clever title. I wanted to argue with you, but you made your point well. Thanks for another great post!

  3. Anatoly, SPb, Russia says:

    I think I came to this conclusion sometime last year. It always strikes me to witness my thoughts and feelings change in drastic(thoughts) and subtle(feelings) ways.

  4. Holly Whall says:

    David, I agree with all you have said. At the same time, I have some confusion. Could you tell me how you personally determine when to trust/listen to your instincts/intuition (which often shows up as a felt sense or “feeling”) and when to acknowledge feelings and thoughts as a bump in the road that are distracting you from taking action towards what you want. For example, when you have a strong feeling about something, do you pause and ask yourself a question or two inorder to get clarity around whether this is a feeling that is useful , perhaps even important to listen to and when it is not? I have some thoughts on this, but would love to hear you articulate your opinion. Thank you!

    • peacefuldavid says:

      First the context for my answer: I am “up to” various “games” or goals in my life. I have declared that I want some specific outcome in a particular domain. Now, I am alert to any thoughts or feelings that take “steam” from my desired outcome. Any thought or idea that makes the “stated goal” feel less attractive I am suspect of. If I have intuition or thoughts/feelings in general that have no impact on stated goals, I am pretty open to seeing what the lead to.

      I hope this is what you were asking.

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