May father and I are very different in how we approach problems, and yesterday he told me about an experience that fascinated him and helped him immensely, solving a problem – hypnosis. I’ve been in touch with energetic healing, techniques like Rei-Ki, and shamanic rituals, but I could never really connect to them. They sometimes work on me, and I’m open to trying, but my first (maybe instinctual?) reaction to every problem is thinking. Analyzing.
And I have gotten far with that. I’ve found many things and was able to get down to levels of the subconsciousness by connecting dots, finding the pattern, and tracing it back. I connected to my values that way and was able to change many behaviors in my life, eradicating some incoherence. It might sound like an oxymoron, but thinking also allowed me to connect way deeper to my feelings and emotions.
As I was wide awake until late last night (we just arrived in Germany, coming from Ecuador, so my “normal” bedtime is 4am here… I was happy to be asleep at 1am, due to exhaustion from the flight), I kept thinking about this, and came up with a rudimentary differentiation.
The analysis of one’s self is through a process of dissociation. I look at my situation, feelings, emotions from a third person perspective, trying to figure out a pattern. The subjects get dissected, and afterwards glued back together, so to speak, but they fit a lot better.
Contemplation and strong connection to perception lead the way to understanding one’s self. It’s not so much the “why”, but the “it is” that is important and dominates. The subject doesn’t have to be understood in order to be true. The connection to the subconscious is stronger, but through feeling, not through knowing. Or maybe it’s more direct, as the underlying reasons are overgone without diminishing the effect.
Advanced experience and skill in either of the two leads to more awareness, and with that less control of the subconsciousness over one’s acts. A poor skill can also lead to capsulation of one of the two, suppressing it back into the subconscious for a variety of reasons. When I came to Ecuador, I was very empathetic, to a degree that was not healthy for me, and I wasn’t able to handle it. As I wasn’t aware of why I was feeling the way I was, I just shut it down and blocked it. It was years later that I understood that and was able to change it – through analysis.
I’m still working on re-gaining my “feel”, hence my perspective on that is just that – an observation. I don’t remember well how it works. Maybe I’ll get back to it in the future, I do believe in balance, that having a heavy list is as dangerous in life as it is on the water. Doesn’t mean you’ll drown, but makes it more likely.
My father was always incredibly receptive to energies and spirituality, too. Never religious, as he had bad experiences with that from childhood. Techniques like Reiki had the most impressive effects on him, just as the hypnosis. And he himself was always a great healer. He studies physical therapy, and combined both the technical, rational, with his ability to feel. And I always felt like the latter is dominating in him, while in my mom it’s the opposite.
Both were and are very successful in helping people, as they both reached a high level of skill and balance of the two sides. From my own experiences though, I’d say that I connect a lot better with practitioners that are more inclined to the rational. Part of that might be placebo – when my doctor can explain me on a technical level why what (s)he’s doing will help me, I’m more prone to believe him. If (s)he’d talk about tapping into the universal energy and auras, I’d be suspicious.
What about you? Are you more of a thinker, or a feeler?
What are your thoughts about this topic? Please feel free to engage in any original way, including dropping links to your posts on similar topics. I'm happy to read (and curate) any quality content that is not created by LLM/AI, as well as read your own experience and point of view, I love to learn!
