Is your model that our thoughts come first, and feelings second?
I think that there are cases where that’s true, but that generally our emotional state exerts a strong influence on what kinds of thoughts we’re capable of having. So feeling safe (or at least not feeling unsafe) may be a prerequisite for being able to think clearly about risks.
(Though this gets complicated because there are influences going in both directions—if I thought that intellectual ideas had zero influence on feelings, it would have been pointless for me to write this post.)
Is your model that our thoughts come first, and feelings second?
Not exactly—there’s more feedback loop than that. I fully agree with “this gets complicated”.
I would say that intentional changes to mind-state tend to be thoughts-first. I don’t know if that’s tautological from the nature of “intentional”, but it does seem common enough to make it the best starting point for most people.
And to clarify, as I tried to say in the introduction, the post is mostly intended to counter the thought that “I shouldn’t feel safe”. So if someone is having thoughts that it’s wrong to feel safe and they should stop doing so, then the intent of the post isn’t to say “here’s how you should feel”. Rather, it’s just to say “if you do feel safe, I don’t think you need to take a metaphorical hammer and hit yourself with it until you feel unsafe (nor do you need to believe people who say that you should); here’s why I think you can stop doing that”.
So I think that if you are saying that one should focus on how they think about risks, and I’m saying that here’s one way to think about them, then we agree?
Is your model that our thoughts come first, and feelings second?
I think that there are cases where that’s true, but that generally our emotional state exerts a strong influence on what kinds of thoughts we’re capable of having. So feeling safe (or at least not feeling unsafe) may be a prerequisite for being able to think clearly about risks.
(Though this gets complicated because there are influences going in both directions—if I thought that intellectual ideas had zero influence on feelings, it would have been pointless for me to write this post.)
Not exactly—there’s more feedback loop than that. I fully agree with “this gets complicated”.
I would say that intentional changes to mind-state tend to be thoughts-first. I don’t know if that’s tautological from the nature of “intentional”, but it does seem common enough to make it the best starting point for most people.
Right, that makes sense.
And to clarify, as I tried to say in the introduction, the post is mostly intended to counter the thought that “I shouldn’t feel safe”. So if someone is having thoughts that it’s wrong to feel safe and they should stop doing so, then the intent of the post isn’t to say “here’s how you should feel”. Rather, it’s just to say “if you do feel safe, I don’t think you need to take a metaphorical hammer and hit yourself with it until you feel unsafe (nor do you need to believe people who say that you should); here’s why I think you can stop doing that”.
So I think that if you are saying that one should focus on how they think about risks, and I’m saying that here’s one way to think about them, then we agree?
Yup, thanks for the clarification.