Search the Community

FEELINGS ARE NEVER THE TRUTH This is probably my favourite quote. I have suffered all my life from clinical depression, and have had one episode in my early twenties where I was suicidal, and was admitted to hospital. I have been on antidepressants, to give myself the best chance, and more than anything, I give thanks and gratitude to my family and TLE. The truth of FEELINGS ARE NEVER THE TRUTH is a lifesaver for me. My thoughts and feelings can convince each other of feeling devastated, desolate, and day after day sadness. What I realised late in my game is that I can work with my attitude, and then, my thoughts and feelings. I can still do things, achieve, live a life, I can aim to thrive, and survive, and that is a spectrum of relative success depending on the day, how work has been, and how energetic I feel. Lots of things affect my mood, but realising that my feelings (dark well that they can be sometimes) isn't all of the truth. Thank you especially to Maureen Greenaway for finding this for me. I post this here to help remind you of this truth. from April Energy Report 2015 “Feelings” are not just emotional, not just of the body, but intellectual, as well. Feelings begin with thoughts, are reinforced by emotions, and then are felt in the body. This is part of why we have always said that the Attitude is key to the relief from your Chief Features. If you can change your Attitude, you can change everything. In other words, if you can change your thoughts (intellectual/attitude), you change how you see things and relate (emotions/mode), which can change what you do and how you feel (moving/goal). How you feel about a person, about life, about plans, about the future, the past, about anything is an indication of how you use your Attitude. Your “feelings” are not information. They are byproducts. They are results. This is not to say that feelings are not helpful, but we know that many of our students have been taught to “trust their feelings,” which can often translate into “what I have decided is true must be true.” We have said this before, and will say it again here: FEELINGS ARE NEVER THE TRUTH. Feelings are how you feel about the truth. Feelings are how you react to the truth. Feelings are how you navigate the truth. Feelings tell you how you feel. Feelings tell you the story of you in relation to the truth. Nothing else. To a great extent, then, feelings can be very helpful, but only when they are understood as YOUR STORY, NOT THE TRUTH. This is why it is important to trust your feelings. Because you benefit from learning your story. You benefit from understanding your story. You benefit from seeing the results of your processes and navigation of thoughts, emotions, and actions. But when you let feelings stand as indications of the truth, of fact, of any reality beyond you, then you fall prey to the negative poles of you that then trigger your Chief Features. Again, your feelings are beneficial and there for a reason. They show you the sum of your thoughts, emotions, and actions/reactions. But they are not the truth. If this is difficult to understand, consider these scenarios: A mother discovers that her child is gay. Her child “comes out” and frees himself from the fears imposed by society. She is devastated. She feels her son has betrayed her. She feels he has condemned her life, and his. Is this true? Has his choice caused all of these things? No. Of course, not. These feelings are merely the reflection of her story. Not the truth, and nothing to do with her son’s choices. It is how she feels about the truth, but her feelings are not the truth. Her feelings are as valid as anyone’s, but they are hers. A son “comes out” as gay, and his mother is devastated. She rejects him. She decides that she cannot accept him. He loses his mother. He feels the loss, the pain, and the sadness of all of this. Are his feelings fair? Do these feelings seem more justified than his mother’s? Of course they seem to be, but they are not. They are of the same stuff. They are his feelings about the truth, but they are not the truth. In other words, his feelings are a result of processing his mother’s choices, but they are not the truth about his worth, his value, his choice. His feelings are no indication of what he should or should not have done. They are his story. They are valid. Years later, the mother has a change of heart, an awakening, a realization, and embraces her son. He accepts this reunion and is relieved. Both are truly happy. Both feel happy, closer than ever, and inspired. Are these feelings the truth? No more than the pain of disappointment and shock. No more than the pain of rejection. “Good” feelings are still just your story. They are how you feel about the truth. They are never the truth. When the mother rejected the child, the truth was that he was gay. It was nothing more than that. When the son felt the pain and lost in the rejection, the truth was that his mother did not have the capacity to comprehend a truth. When both were elated with joy at their reunion, the feelings were about the truth of that reunion. The reunion was the truth, but how they felt about that was still their own stories. In each of the scenarios above, the truths can remain the same, and the feelings have been completely different. No feelings would have changed the truths. Feelings would have only told each about their part in the story. However, it is important to note: the more negative and restricted a feeling, the more it indicates that you have either rejected the truth, wish to change the truth, or do not understand the truth. Negative feelings are not bad. If you feel bad, you have rejected the truth, wish to change the truth, or do not have the whole truth. On the other side of this, if you feel good, you have accepted a truth, or some part of the truth, embrace that truth, or some part of it, and have a greater understanding of the truth, or some great part of it. And this brings us back to the Attitude of this year. The shift away from Resignation and toward Tranquility can only come with an acceptance of some truth, or some next part of a truth, can only come with the embrace of a truth, or some greater part of a truth, can only come as you gain a better understanding of the truth. What “the truth” is can be tricky to separate out from your feelings, but it is there, and it is often very simple. The truth is never very complicated. The truth can be complex, but not complicated. There is a difference. From Maureen Greenaway, who posted this Michael quote in Facebook Truth Love Energy today, thankyou. It is not necessary to avoid or “heal” depression, nor is it necessary to seek only a state of Joy. What will tend to bring a wholeness to the life is the awareness of who “you” are even as you experience those fluctuating feelings. Depression is merely an attachment to one state of feeling and identifying entirely with it, rather than differentiating oneself from the experience of that state. This would be true of joy, too. Joy is a PART of life, not the goal of life. Depression is a PART of life, not a condemnation. In light of that, our process would be one that describes a process of detachment and a broadening of consciousness, rather than that of a healing or escape from a state of feeling. And from a discussion earlier today on Michael Teachings Facebook from Christian Falde, which I found speaks for my experience too. 1) part of depression is a chemical imbalance. I trained my brain to that imbalance by embracing the depression. So if i can re train my brain...like you can the rest of your body...then a nee balance could be found. 2) Michael stated that feeling are not truth...or something similar. When i recognize depression happening, my thoughts are embracig the feelings of worhtlessness, failure, doubt, resentment. I stop and ask..why...and where did that come from. 3) analyze the shit out of everything. Is this true? Do I have evidence for this? 4) recognize that you need to feel. This comes from a reaction. If feeling things makes me depressed...then don't feel. That actually makes it worse. So feel the feelings..cry..laugh..melancholy...whatever...but let them pass. 5) find the real. Self care. Bath. Wash the clothes. Do the dishes. Fold the laundry. Do ALL THE THINGS. For me, movement has been very helpful in grounding in the real. These things helped me more than i realized. I could see the depression for what it is. Not some monster to be fought and defeated. But a part of me. A necessary part for dealing with different parts of life. But not something that needs to be held onto. Which is what thinking of it as foe to be defeated does.