Exercises - Think - Act - Feel - An Idea to Work On

Every action and feeling or attitude (an attitude is a feeling) very quickly brings about a certain condition.

Most of us allow whatever feeling we get from our environment at any given moment .......... or whatever feeling we wake up with in the morning (or whatever else happens to pop in!) ......... to dictate our actions.

So mostly we feel first :

• then we act,
  
• then we try to explain why we acted that way.

Some commonly heard explanations :

1. You made me mad.
2. You upset me, so it's all your fault.

So.......this is a common routine :
F - A - T
Feel - Act - Think

1. IT IS POSSIBLE TO FIRST THINK -- HOW WOULD I LIKE TO FEEL?
   (Happy? Energetic? Peaceful? Enthusiastic? Vital?)
   

2. THEN BEGIN TO ACT THAT WAY.............
   (This is the creative part!)
   

3. THEN NOTICE HOW LONG IT TAKES BEFORE THE FEELING OCCURS!
   

Now ............. with just a little "work" you have arrived at :

T - A - F
Think - Act - Feel

"It has been demonstrated and a number of people have experimented with it -- that if you act a certain way, you begin to feel a certain way in accord with the way you're acting. If you started to "act" angry at the moment -- even though you didn't feel that way -- in a very short length of time you'd begin to feel angry.......................

Conversely, it has been observed by many that if you begin to act enthusiastic that in a very few minutes you will begin to feel that way and your condition of being would be very delightful. (Most people have experienced that once in a while -- even if it happened accidentally!)...................

...............THE FEELING AND CONDITION CAN GO EITHER WAY."

from "Feel - Act - Think"
Tuesday Night Talks
Newport Beach, California
Rhondell 1980

A personal EXPERIMENT :

I am a professional musician. A few days ago I was on my way to a "gig" (musical job), when I decided to pick out some words that would be appropriate to how I wanted to feel.

I chose:

1. Aware
2. Capable
3. Gracious
4. Adaptable

Acting on these words did brought about a different direction in the evening's performance and my interaction with the people around me -- helping to make the evening a professional and personal success. Hopefully, you'll experiment and let me know what acting on these words, or on some of Dr. Bob's proposed purposes (below) do for you. Or perhaps you'll share some you have used.

In sharing this experiment with fellow students, one asked me how I was going to act gracious. Another student had a picture of a "southern belle" like Scarlett O'Hara. I realized that I needed a better definition ....... so the following might save you a trip to the bookshelf (or CD ROM shelf!) :

AWARE :

1. Having knowledge, conscious, cognizant
2. Informed, alert
3. Watchful

CAPABLE :

1. Having intelligence and ability, efficient, competent
2. Having the ability or capability for
3. Open to the influence or effect of

GRACIOUS :

1. Disposed to show grace or favor, kind, benevolent, courteous
2. Characterized by good taste, comfort, ease
3. Indulgent or beneficial, pleasant
4. Merciful or compassionate
5. Fortunate or happy
6. Benign, friendly, favorable, polite, tender, clement, mild, or gentle

ADAPT :

1. To make suitable to requirements or conditions, adjust or modify fittingly
2. To adjust oneself to different conditions, environment, etc.

Well, there are many definitions and some may not seem appropriate, but we're on a journey to choose for ourselves how we want to feel and how we want to see people, places and circumstances. Remember, there is no right or wrong -- just observations, experiments and results.
There are no failures with experiments.

---

In many early lectures and on some of the tapes dating from the 1970's Dr. Bob gave us a simple purpose we could experiment with:

"BE WHAT, TO ME, IS A GOOD GUEST""

Which eventually evolved into :

"CONTRIBUTE TO A PLEASANT, HARMONIOUS MOOD"

And, still later, became:

"KEEP THE MOOD UP AND DON'T MAKE ANYTHING IMPORTANT"