Roughly, the essay urges one to be conscious of each passing thought, to see it and kind of head it off at the tracks—“feeling angry?” “don’t!”. But the comment argues this is against what CBT says about feeling our feelings.
What about Sam Harris’ practise of meditation which seems focused on seeing and noticing thoughts, turning attention back on itself. I had a period last night of sort of “intense consciousness” where I felt very focused on the fact I was conscious. It. wasn’t super pleasant, but it was profound. I can see why one would want to focus on that but also why it might be a bad idea.
To me it’s less about thoughts and more about emotions. And not about doing it all the time, but only when I’m having some intense emotion and need to do something about it.
For example, let’s say I’m angry about something. I imagine there’s a knob in my mind: make the emotion stronger or weaker. (Or between feeling it less, and feeling it more.) What I usually do is turn the knob up. Try to feel the emotion more completely and in more detail, without trying to push any of it away. What usually happens next is the emotion kinda decides that it’s been heard and goes away: a few minutes later I realize that whatever I was feeling is no longer as intense or urgent. Or I might even forget it entirely and find my mind thinking of something else.
It’s counterintuitive but it’s really how it works for me; been doing it for over a decade now. It’s the closest thing to a mental cheat code that I know.
Can I check that I’ve understood it.
Roughly, the essay urges one to be conscious of each passing thought, to see it and kind of head it off at the tracks—“feeling angry?” “don’t!”. But the comment argues this is against what CBT says about feeling our feelings.
What about Sam Harris’ practise of meditation which seems focused on seeing and noticing thoughts, turning attention back on itself. I had a period last night of sort of “intense consciousness” where I felt very focused on the fact I was conscious. It. wasn’t super pleasant, but it was profound. I can see why one would want to focus on that but also why it might be a bad idea.
To me it’s less about thoughts and more about emotions. And not about doing it all the time, but only when I’m having some intense emotion and need to do something about it.
For example, let’s say I’m angry about something. I imagine there’s a knob in my mind: make the emotion stronger or weaker. (Or between feeling it less, and feeling it more.) What I usually do is turn the knob up. Try to feel the emotion more completely and in more detail, without trying to push any of it away. What usually happens next is the emotion kinda decides that it’s been heard and goes away: a few minutes later I realize that whatever I was feeling is no longer as intense or urgent. Or I might even forget it entirely and find my mind thinking of something else.
It’s counterintuitive but it’s really how it works for me; been doing it for over a decade now. It’s the closest thing to a mental cheat code that I know.
Do you find it dampens good emotions. Like if you are deeply in love and feel it does it diminish the experience?
I think for good emotions the feel-it-completely thing happens naturally anyway.