If It Feels Good Do It

… And if it doesn’t, quit.

This is a quote taken slightly out of context from one of my favorite public speakers, Clebe McClary He saw it on a t-shirt from one of the high school students he spoke to and used it to describe an attitude that he disagreed with.

The Sloan song goes “If it feels good do it, even if you shouldn’t. Don’t let people mess you around.”

Good song and I really like Sloan but it seems that most people are missing the point with this one.

“And now it’s catching up to you as these things usually do. Saw it all and I can’t deny it’s a hard life living a lie.”

In other words, be true to yourself and it will feel good.

Do what feels right emotionally, not necessarily what physically feels good as many people think. Doing drugs, drinking alcohol, committing adultery; these things may feel good physically but it is not hard to see how they are destructive acts in the long run. So what is Sloan trying to tell us here? How does it match up with Clebe?

The other side of this idea can be summed up with “No pain, no gain.” We can easily see how that applies to physical life today. Working out does not feel great but it adds value to our lives physically. Studying into the late hours of is not the most pleasurable act but it adds value to our lives mentally. As a general rule it would seem that feeling good is actually bad and feeling bad is actually good. For the most part this is true; in the conscious realm that is.

When we are talking about the workings of the mind it is important to note that we have two separate entities we are working with; the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. When we are concerned with the subconscious mind I would argue that if it feels good we should do it.

In this sense the subconscious mind is where the feeling center resides. Our emotions are more directly linked with our subconscious. Once tuned into the subconscious mind it can be our greatest asset, the problem is becoming connected to that source.

Haven’t you ever noticed that you could feel something was wrong before you entered a room? You get this sinking feeling and then all of a sudden you notice an ex sitting there with their new partner and you look like you just walked out of the barn. Or you are delivering a business presentation and everything seems to go wrong. Maybe you noticed that in the positive sense. You just knew playing a certain sport would be the thing that brought you success. Or something held you back from crossing the street and you just miss getting hit by a drunk driver by inches. What caused you to act like that?

Sounds crazy I know, but something was there and you felt it. We all feel these moments from time to time, even if we don’t want to admit them to our friends in the likely event that they will get us fitted for a nice new straight jacket. But we can use this to our advantage if we just figured out what was going on and listened to it.

Intuition is a funny thing and considered by many to be some form of pseudoscience. In our highly intellectualized society today it is easy to push away something that we can not quantify; but we CAN qualify it. Next time you are faced with a difficult decision mentally ‘try it on’ and listen to your feelings. Remember, this is not going to be a yes or no answer. It will let you know intuitively how you would feel in that situation. That will help you decide if it is worth it or not to go in that direction.

Now before you all think I am some tree hugging psychic nut, let me explain where I am coming from here. Separation from the Ego is essential here. Being attached to any one outcome or desire to be right will prevent the intuition from being heard. Practice seeing yourself as the observer rather than what is being observed.

The subconscious mind in some scientific communities can be described as ‘group consciousness’. What that means is when two or more conscious beings get together they have the ability to think and act as one. A pack of wolves knows how to function as a group to survive and do things that one wolf alone could not do. A basketball team when performing at their best knows what one team mate will do even before he or she does it. Even though practice, instinct and understanding habits can partially explain group consciousness, these are good examples to illustrate what I am writing about. Take that a step further to society at large and you get social memes, belief traits that people unknowingly adopt from their environment. Take it to a universal perspective and we can develop the notion of a universal consciousness.

To put that all into perspective our subconscious mind is tied into the universal consciousness. It is one part of a congruent whole encasing all that exists in space and time. Intuition, that inner knowing, is just one example of how this universal consciousness influences our lives. So when we feel something, we know that on a subconscious and universal level. We know if it feels good and if it is a right fit for us. It is a powerful force that we should listen to. Even though the pain of exercise and study can at times be unbearable, if you truly listen to that inner knowing it could be saying something like “I know the effort is worth it. Just keep going and it will all work out.”

So get in touch with your inner feelings and silence that Ego for a period of time. Ask the question without forcing an answer. Do what feels right even if it hurts and you will ultimately be on the path to adding meaning to your life; to find your overarching purpose.