19.95 Twelve Steps To Emotional Health (see below)
FACEBOOK-AFFECT PSYCHOLOGY
| Dear Brian, ......... many thanks for your book. Almost every page is a joy to read! Presently I am at Ch. 17. It is beautiful, playful at times, insightful all over. It must have been a joy to write, too, emotionally and intellectually!... Above all, your book convinced me totally of the primacy of feeling that I "discovered" quite a while ago by thinking about values. I will be in a much better position to further discuss this subject. What is more, my life, which has been reasonably well most of the time, probably will change for the better ......................... I think I now understand myself and others much better. I hope to become a better teacher also, ................................................. Reimon Bachika, Professor of sociology, Bukkyo University; President, ISA (International Sociological Association) RC 07 Futures Research, Kyoto, Japan, |
12
STEPS TO BETTER LEARNING
We came to realize that we are
profoundly emotional beings and that unless we understand our emotions we are
unable to learn at our full potential and are often powerless over our own actions and are powerless over the world.
We came to believe that by coming
to know our own powerful emotions we may maximize our use of reason to the end
of learning at our potential, thus helping maximize peace and joy in our lives.
We made a decision to start on a
path of understanding how our thinking and actions and our ability to learn are
often profoundly determined by our emotions past and present.
We came to an understanding that
by taking a detailed emotional inventory, an inventory of our anger, fear,
distress, disgust, and shame and by assessing what we are really interested in
and what really makes us happy, that only by doing this, will we truly be able
to change our thinking and actions and perform at our highest level no matter
what the endeavor.
That we have expressed to others,
when appropriate, and ourselves the exact nature of our feelings thereby
gaining some power over them and thus be able to achieve our academic
potential.
By doing the above we naturally
became ready to be accepting of the world and others as it is and as they are.
By the above we came to accept
ourselves as we are and understand that when we have hurt ourselves or others
we have done what we have done due to our own hurt that was unmanageable, and
thus it is counterproductive and damaging to blame ourselves and others. That
when such issues are unresolved we will be less able to achieve our own
intellectual goals.
Made a list of all the times we
failed to achieve our personal intellectual goals and made an inventory of how
we felt at the time we failed and made amends to ourselves when appropriate if
possible. While doing such we have been
careful not to blame or scold ourselves for not doing better.
We have tried to understand why
we felt the way we did, thus understanding why we did what we did. We have come
to understand that we feel before we think. We have worked towards
understanding that others, like ourselves, have trouble controlling emotion and
thus, often, what they do and how well they perform.
We have continued to think about
our basic emotions and we have come to know each emotion in our own personal
way. We have monitored ourselves for feelings of guilt, which we have come to
see as counterproductive. When we do things that hurt others ,or ourselves, we
look to what we were feeling at the time, thereby understanding ourselves
better, as well as making amends to those we have hurt, thereby not experiencing guilt but joy.
Sought, through the practice of a
daily emotional inventory and meditation on that inventory, control over our
actions and lives and our academic performance without ever expecting
perfection of others or myself in these regards.
Having come to know our emotional
lives we have gained the ability to employ our interest and experience in a new
type of interaction with others. One of mutual interest that will lead us to
maximize joy in ourselves and see learning as an enjoyable activity that is to
be shared.
BRIAN LYNCH,MD
