Jeff Russell

Interesting prompt there to think about what one should 'do' about unpleasant feelings. My latest translation of Krebs' work, Ebb and Flow (coming out in January), seems to address something similar in that he points out how all life is subject to ebb and flow, as emotions are too. Instead of trying to stop the ebb and flow, he seems to suggest that one should learn to 'surf' it so to speak (obviously being a 19th century German I don't think he knew anything about surfing). The question then becomes how to surf them productively. If we see the emotion as energy coming in waves, then what can we do with the 'negative' energy? Or is there no such thing as 'negative' energy, only negative processing of it? Karel Weinfurter seemed to be of the view that thoughts are real and he really embraced that transmitter metaphor - but rather than the blessings cancelling out the anger, I think he would see it as turning off one transmitter and turning on another. And he also placed a lot of emphasis on our also being receivers and that therefore we need to be careful about which channels we tune in to.

Regarding "As you or I might be right now, maybe certain folks, situations, or happenings make us feel, say, angry", the NLP view is that only you can make yourself feel angry and that it is a choice (though maybe not conscious) - which is where the Blessings book seems to be coming from. But it may not be useful to go around always trying to be conscious of the choices your unconscious is making - moderation in all things maybe.

I don't really have any answers, but I think a useful question to think about at times is: do you want to be a saint or a god? ie which behaviour do you want to project in a particular situation?

Anyway thanks for the review, it gave me things to think about.