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True to our feelings: what our emotions are really telling us by Robert C. So...

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True to our feelings: what our emotions are really telling us
by Robert C. Solomon (Oxford, 2007)
great detailed book, dense reading, academic-y, thoughtful considerations about the complexity of emotions, surveying science, philosophy, history, cultures and other disciplines to get at nuances of feelings and emotions (authors notes various differences in perspectives even among experts); even touches on ethics of emotions

The Five Things We Cannot Change... and the happiness we find by embracing them
by David Richo (Shambhala, 2005)

author suggests 5 axioms about life

  1. everything changes and ends
  2. things do not always go according to plan
  3. life is not always fair
  4. pain is part of life
  5. people are not loving and loyal all the time

author writes from a psychotherapist and a touch of Buddhist perspective; in chapter 8, "Yes to Feelings", author describes feelings as "bodily reactions that are the healthy built-in technologies for dealing with life's jolts"

and suggests:
life span of a feeling: stimulus -> arousal of a feeling -> showing the feeling -> cooling down -> a calm openness to what may come next as we get on with life -> readiness for the next stimulus and begining again

practices: admit we are afraid; allow the feeling of fear to be felt fully; act so that we are not stopped or driven by fear
an action does not lead to a feeling unless a belief intervenes; that is, action (or stimulus) leads to belief about its meaning, which leads to consequent feeling

describes 4 fundamental feelings: fear, anger, sadness, and exuberance; other "feelings" are judgments or emotional states
feelings are not beliefs, needs, sensations, emotional states, or judgements - one word "feel" used to cover many subtile possibilities in human communication


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DJ Chuang

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on Aug 01, 08