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Why are feelings so important? Why are words alone or beliefs not enough? Over 25 years ago, I discovered the inner essence of my being and simultaneously began to connect to myself, others, and life itself through the healing power of feelings. Feelings are what give life its emotional color and tone. Feelings are what give "soul" to our very existence on this earth. Feelings enable both connectedness and expression. Feelings are the life force in action. Without feelings or the capacity to feel, life itself is sterile, a void, a "movie" to be watched…..not personally participated in.
Feelings enable us to experience the full depth of life's rich and varied expressions. In fact, feelings expressed and experienced through music, dance, gatherings, and relationships are at times not just magical, even inspiring, but truly our natural birthright. Psychological insight has long been seen as the "gold standard " in traditional "talk therapy". However, psychological insight that is not grounded in emotional and physical experience is a little like looking through a glass at what others are enjoying, unable to get through the glass to join them, all the while yearning to feel what they are feeling.
If one's "head" cannot sense or feel one's "heart" or "gut" then that is someone who is living in disconnection.
Without connected feelings…….cognitive beliefs, mental thoughts, even genius ideas are truly sterile and limited. Emotions give expression and meaning to otherwise "disembodied" thoughts and beliefs--not the other way around, as contemporary neuroscience is now confirming. Feelings are not a "luxury" but rather absolutely critical to experiencing ourselves and the life around us.
In our culture and familial upbringing, many people have learned to overly rely on the "god of cognition", worshipping at the "altar of the intellect "--only to later "sense" the futility and bankruptcy of this popular notion. As these feelings stir "that something isn't quite right" some of these very same people have become my clients. Courageously, they begin a personal quest to discover what feelings are (most people believe they know what feelings are, but mistake disconnected emotional states as real feelings) and a truly remarkable thing
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