To be alive, as an adult, simply means that we are constantly thinking, feeling, and acting (behaving).
Along with the feedback we get from other people, our thoughts, feelings, and action work as a team together and create our outer world experience.
Some may argue that thoughts come first or that feelings come first.
Other people believe that if you can just control someone's behavior then you can change the person's thoughts and feelings.
The truth is that that these three forces feelings, thoughts, and actions work together as a team! It is not a matter of which comes first.
Just like the age old question of the chicken and the egg and which one comes first, in regards to feelings, thoughts, and actions you can spend your whole life trying to figure that debate out.
For this model to be USEFUL order doesn't matter.
These three forces thoughts, feelings, actions + a program instilled in us from our childhood work together to create our outside experience, as shown in the following equation.
Program + (feelings+thoughts) + actions= Our Outer World Experience The good news is that we don't have to decide which one comes first (thoughts, feelings, or actions)and focus on the one area.
We just have to understand each individual part because feelings have a different pattern and operating function/process than thoughts and actions do.
Thoughts have a different pattern and operating function/process than feelings and actions do.
Finally our actions have a different pattern and operating function/process than feelings and thoughts do.
Let's look at the three processes individual first, in order to understand the big picture.
In Part two, we will examine how parents can look at feelings differently to help unleash the leader within.