In keeping with the last post
regarding the frontal lobe use – “Who’s The Boss?” Allow me to share a true
story to illustrate ‘feelings’ opposed to ‘reason, intellect, judgment and will.’
Quite often I am asked to take
different people to the airport, in another town, about 40 miles from where I
live. I don’t particularly enjoy taking the expressway, because there is one
section, about a mile long that supports about five or six different exchanges,
which exit from both sides of the expressway and can be pretty confusing at
times.
Well, after having gone that way many
times, I figured out that there is one lane that runs the entire length of the
expressway, which allows a driver, if he/she stays in that one particular lane,
to take them the entire way pass all of the exchanges, directly to the airport.
One day, while accompanying a friend
of mine to the airport, I decided to point out this fact to him. He was equally
uncomfortable with this particular stretch (having gone the wrong way on two
occasions when driving this route).
When I said to him, “If you stay in
this lane, it will take you directly there”, I could sense that he was
uncomfortable with the idea. The lane appeared to take you to first one and
then another exit, but actually would pass by it.
Now, he had a choice; would he allow
his feelings of anxiety, to get the better part of him? Or would he allow his
reason and judgment, to keep him in this lane and prove my point? It was a hard
five minutes for him, to be taken right past all of those “near exits” by exercising
his frontal lobe, however, he suppressed those feelings from the rear lobe of
his brain and made a successful trip there.
I am learning that if we will just
take charge of our feelings for a short time and reign them into control, we
will leave ourselves open to the exercise of the ‘will’ and will thereby be
successful in each endeavor. Until next time, “stay in this lane” of reasoning
and reach your goals.
