I have a new tool. It’s a question, ‘what are my feelings telling me?’ Often in the middle of a jam-packed day, I just say one word; “feelings”. It’s like the word a trainer tells his rottweiler to make him calm down when he starts to growl.

I am a dedicated student of my own mind. I am fascinated by its power to create scenarios that I go on to act, often without my input into the storyline. These days I am exploring how my emotions and feelings lead me astray. Our actions are usually preceded by a feeling, which is sparked off by a thought.

So, I turned down an offer that could have been lucrative for me. I weighed the investment of my time and other resources, followed my intuition and made the decision not to go for it. The next morning I found myself checking to see who took my place and as I neared the information, I felt discomfort rising up from my belly. It was the feeling of disappointment that was about to come when I saw their name and not mine up there. And disappointed, I did feel. Then I said it, feelings.

Because it’s just a feeling. Feeling isn’t necessarily fact. Feelings are not to be relied upon as decision-making partners when it comes to moving forward in life. But feelings are so strong. They can ruin your entire day if you don’t hold the reins. They can cause you to change direction over something important, that you were so certain about only minutes before. Like a soft dye, once released, they start to colour everything you see from that moment on and cause you to approach things differently. The longer you have the feeling, the more the dye is released and the more distorted your view becomes.

This morning as I said my code word the disappointment subsided, the dye dissipated and I was happily back on track in the direction I was supposed to be heading in.

“What are you thinking about?” Perhaps a better question would be; “what was the thought that led you to that feeling?”

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Do the work, let the feelings take care of themselves and have a fantastic day!