A Letter to Neale

Dear Neale,

I'd like to begin a dialogue about some aspects of CwG, Book 1 that resonated with me. There's so much, of course, and I'm only a few pages into the book. Yes, I actually went back to the beginning and started with the first page after doing my open-it-anywhere-to see-how-I-connect test. Every page contains a number of gems that each could be the subject of a lengthy dialogue.

What jumps out at me now is the subject of "feelings" and how they are so much more an accurate communicator of truth than is the spoken word. As a society, of course, we've been taught to second-guess or, worse, deny our feelings. The paradigm by which we've run our lives and our organizations has (to date) validated left-brain, linear, if-I-can't-see/touch/taste/hear/smell-it-it-must-not-be-real thinking and invalidated "touchy-feely," "soft," intuitive stuff.

Which is why white males over 45 still run the majority of businesses in this country. But that is slowly changing. I do believe that feminine principles will become more generally accepted in business, soon. Of course, this has been my wish for some time, so it's hard for me to be objective about this.

I agree with the book/God. (Sounds sort of silly to be saying that.) My question of you/source/God: Some people distinguish between emotions and feelings while others use the terms interchangeably. What's your perspective? What's the difference?

Carol M .

Neale Responds

Dear Carol,

You've asked a key question. Nice going! I had the same question when the CwG material first came through. I'm now clear on the difference.

As I understand it, feelings are what we feel, and emotion is what can happen in and with our bodies as a result of what we feel. Example: You feel fear and the emotion called "scared" sears through your body. Your stomach may tie up in knots. You may start to tremble. You may even do something stupid.

Emotion seems to be a shorthand for "energy in motion"--that is, stuff we do with our bodies. Often we "display our emotions." That is, the body does stuff (we jump for joy!) that telegraphs to the world what we are feeling. There's a very soft difference here, I know. To me, it seems that an "emotion" is what our mind does (and then tells the body to do) about what we feel. We "feel" a thing, and then get "all emotional." That is, full of energy in motion. Feelings are always true.

Emotions can sometimes be false.

Want an example? Try this: Crying is often an emotional response to the feeling of loss. It is also often an emotional response to the feeling of great relief. Or enormous and sudden joy. Now a person standing across the street, watching a person cry, has no idea what's going on. He knows not what the person is feeling, only that the person is being very emotional about it. Feelings are our deepest truth. Emotions are the mental and physical manifestations of feelings after the mind gets through with its endless (and rapid) analysis of them.

The mind doesn't know a darn thing about feelings. Only the heart does. The mind thinks it knows, of course, and so comes up with all sorts of responses. Some of them are actually in accordance with our true feelings. Some are not.

At moments of great decision and choice in our lives, we have to therefore go deep inside and look at our true feelings about a thing. Therein is our truth, not in our emotions.

blessings,