What You Think or Feel

Yellow Bougainvillea in Tobago, a sign of friendly protection.

I don’t care what you think. You shouldn’t care what I think.

The reason is what you feel and do about your feelings, is much more important to me.  

Of late, my feelings have made me think.

I’m feeling like I should look more closely at these two ways of processing experiences and at my own understanding of people’s health and appreciation for their feeling selves.

The lens of feelings is a holistic prism that synthesizes spiritual, mental and physical health. 

Consider what you think or feel a certain way about this particular notion: Some people don’t have feelings.

Some people consider other people animals; prone to base behaviors and unworthy of humane treatment.

The same other people may be considered less than animals, despite the curious custom of treating domesticated animals better than these other human beings.

And consider this: Westerners feel good when accumulated material goods attest to their success. Easterners have introduced terms like mindfulness to express a feeling state of the mind and thereby enlarge the role of the heart in assessing the world.

The aim is to reduce focus on accumulated materials and enhance focus on oneness. 

How are we doing with that?  

There ARE champions of holism who truly feel for humanity –from rainbow to black hole– and are about the work of erasing isms.  (We won’t touch this here, but we are pulling together a list.)

What happens when the mindful who also think and feel other people don’t have feelings hold positions of trust as health care providers and holistic health practitioners?

The data are alarming, and consistently so. Public health disparities in medical and hospital treatment for “others” — typically people of color — are disturbing.

We applaud those who are mindful, heart-centered, thoughtful, people-focussed, and unafraid.

I am not afraid, but this fearlessness has only been for the last day or so. This is why I’ve worked up the gumption to share these thoughts.

Seekers and practitioners are not feeling each other because otherness has taken hold of our senses and stolen our common sense of oneness.

The Internet has wounded us, and we literally feel the blows as we watch the worst expressions of human behavior.

This is why we need holistic health, to remind us of our spiritual culture of oneness under God, and of the very real possibility for feeling whole and complete, respected and valued.

Beloveds, I am with you. The world needs more people who care that you feel. It needs more people who care and know that you think. 

–Rev. Niamo Nancy Muid