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Mon 18 Nov, 2002 07:26 pm
What you commit your heart and feelings to will change what you are and make you into a different person. That's what Dr. Anthony Campolo, popular author and speaker, preaches. He says it is not the past, rather the future that conditions you, "because what you commit yourself to determines what you are - more than anything that ever happened to you yesterday, or the day before."
Here are the simple questions Campolo asks. "What are your commitments? Where are you going? What are you going to be?" He states, "You show me somebody who hasn't decided, and I'll show you somebody who has no identity, no personality, no direction."
There are two centers of influence that dictate your actions. The cognitive domain is governed by your mind and the affective domain is controlled by your heart.
Which influence is the most powerful? I'm sure you already know the answer. The power of your emotions is infinitely stronger than your reasoning or logic. In the words of the German philosopher Nietzsche, "One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets go, one soon loses control of the head too."
Recognize both your feelings and your intellect as you make plans for tomorrow.
- Neil Eskelin
One thing that was not addressed here, is where your emotions come from. IMO, what you feel about something is directly related to what you have thought about it.
Unlike many other people, I do not believe that emotions live in some existential vacuum. Emotions do not come from the "heart". The heart is not an organ of cognition. Let me give you this as an example:
There is an auto accident, with a lot of blood, and people screaming and running around. A large crowd gathers. One person becomes nauseated, and throws up. Another watches in rapt fascination. Another person becomes excited. Still another feels relieved that he is not in the accident.
Same stimulus, and a host of different emotions attached to it. the reason for that is that each person has their own emotional reactions to any situation, based on their cognitive evaluation of the situation.
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