We came to believe that by coming to know our own powerful emotions we may maximize peace and joy in our lives.
We made a decision to start on a path of understanding how our thinking and actions are often profoundly determined by our emotions past and present
We came to an understanding that only by taking a detailed emotional inventory, - an inventory of our anger, fear, distress, disgust and shame and by assessing what we are really interested in and what really makes us happy- will we truly be able to change our and actions.
That we have expressed to others, when appropriate, and ourselves the exact nature of our feelings thereby gaining some power over them.
By doing all of the above steps we naturally became ready to be accepting of the world and others as it is and as they are.
By the above we came to accept ourselves as we are and to understand that we have done what we have done due to unmanageable feelings of hurt and thus it is counterproductive and damaging to blame ourselves and others
Made a list of all persons we have harmed and made an inventory of how we felt at the time we hurt them and made amends when appropriate.
We have tried to understand why we felt the way we did thus understanding why we did what we did. We have come to understand that we feel before we think. We have worked towards understanding that others, like ourselves, have trouble controlling emotions and thus, often what they do.
We have continued to think about our basic emotions, daily if possible. We have come to know each emotion in our own personal way. We have monitored ourselves for feelings of guilt and when we do things that hurt others we look to what we were feeling at the time, thereby,avoiding feelings of guilt, understanding ourselves better, as well as making amends to those we have hurt.
Sought, through the practice of a daily emotional inventory and meditation on that inventory, control over our actions and lives.
Having come to know our emotional lives we have gained the ability to employ our interest and experience in a new type of interaction with others, one of mutual interest that will lead us to maximize joy in our lives and with others.
BRIAN LYNCH,MD
Tomkins, Silvan S.: Affect Imagery Consciousness NY: SPringer Publishing Company, 1963.
Shame and Pride : Affect, Sex, and the Birth of the Self by Donald L. Nathanson Paperback (March 1994)
W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393311090
COPYWRIGHT 2000 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BRIAN F. LYNCH