Brief Introduction: Thinking and Feeling
As you probably noticed, we
have two broad topic areas, Use Your Head and Use Your Heart.
We think it will help if we offer an introduction that explains
why we have these two, an introduction we'll put into each topic
category. So here goes
First, human mental
processes, for right or for wrong, have often been divided into
these two categories: Thinking (cognition) and feeling (affect,
or emotion). So we did the same.
Both thinking and feeling can
work for us in recognizing and seeing reality, and both can work
against us. We explore both how they can help and how they can
hinder.
Second, in our opinion, both
play a big part in how we see and understand reality, so we need
to talk about both as part of our efforts on our web site.
Third,
Thoughts and feelings can and often do occur at the same time
along a continuum. An example of being at the thought end
might be solving a math problem, while laughing at a joke might
be at the other end.
To clarify this, here is a diagram:
|
Thoughts
Feelings
|
|
So not only are both
important in grasping reality, but both need to be in some sort
of balance to work effectively. It is especially important
that one not overwhelm the other, which can occur when we move
toward one end, or the other of the continuum. Should such an imbalance
occur, reality can become obscure (how's that for a little
rhyme?).
Thinking: Click buttons below to read articles about
thinking.
To
read about intelligence
To
read about reasoning and how we can use it
To
read about Critical Thinking and how it benefits us
To
read about a couple ways of thinking (divergent and convergent)