Filed under: NLP | Tags: Art Giser, feelings, John McWhirter, Michael Neill, NLP Conference
For me one of the recurrent themes of the conference was the place of feelings in our lives and our approach to them. Michael Neill talked about how our feelings are given not so much by our thoughts, but by how we are thinking. He postulated that feelings are part of a feedback mechanism; a feedback mechanism ceases to be useful if we mess around with it. Michael Neill suggested that taking away someone’s bad feelings is actually harmful because they lose the ability to recognise the thinking that gives rise to the feelings.
I don’t think in NLP we focus on removing upsetting feelings rather than addressing their cause. I note that in John McWhirter’s session on Creative Modelling he stressed the importance of feelings as a source of feedback upon which to act. Sometimes, however, he suggested that sometimes feelings were an indication of erroneous thinking to be addressed by education. John recognised that feeling bad has value, as he said a part of his work had been to make people feel bad about taking drugs or indulging in violence.
Art Giser also addressed the ecology of feeling bad. As Art said, some things you should feel bad about. If you don’t feel bad about hurting others you are a psychopath or even a sociopath.
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
Springingtiger's Blog 