Emotional Freedom Part 7 of 17: Knowing Your Type, The Intellectual
July 23, 2009 by dr. lam
In order to respond to the world’s problems and/or to live life to the fullest, we all must know how we see the world around us. Dr. Orloff breaks us down into four major types, which we will explore over the next few days. By knowing what type we are, we can then see where are strengths are but more importantly find out where our limited world view is cramping us and how to free ourselves from that limitation.
The first emotional type that she discusses is the intellecutal. This individual is very cerebral, as the name implies, usually using the functions from the neck up to answer problems. They cannot handle individuals who are overly emotional and cannot relate to others well emotionally. They are thinkers. They weigh an issue with pros and cons before making a decision. There is no gut decision about anything. They just figure out what they need to do by pure logic, which typically is a very well developed skill set.
For the intellectual, their true weakness is their emotional skills. They have a difficult time connecting the mind to the body. In order to overcome this weakness, Orloff suggests yoga and meditation. Yeah! That is what I suggest for myself and all too. Starting with breath exercises, the intellectual can move away from the purely intellectual habit of thinking and to focus on the sensation of breathing. By using meditation, the intellectual can begin to sense the world rather than think the world. This exercise is vital for me, who has intellectual tendencies but interestingly I am not this type or am not anymore (as I will mention in a moment). The second exercise is yoga. Since yoga requires deep mental concentration to perform, it can stimulate the center of the intellectual’s mind but also free himself/herself from the habit of thinking. As I perform yoga no matter what clouds my mind before entering the room, I can think of nothing else but my poses during the session. Yoga can link the mind and the body during the session and cultivate this linking that can hopefully translate into one’s daily world existence. Finally, the last thing and perhaps the most important is for the intellectual to empathize. Start with the heart and say the simple words, “I know how you are feeling.” With the intention set at the level of the heart, the intellectual can gradually free himself/herself from the shackles of one’s own intellectual qualities.
In the past, I used to adore Ayn Rand for her intellectual prose and world view. I thought emotions were a crippling element but today I realize that I am much more empathic than I would have otherwise believed a few years ago. These blogs are a method for me to express my emotions and thoughts in well, an intellectual way. I guess we all can share some commonalities of different emotional types. I know I certainly do.
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3 Responses to “Emotional Freedom Part 7 of 17: Knowing Your Type, The Intellectual”
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My perspective of emotions and thoughts are that they are intertwined. Emotions and thoughts are dual aspects of awareness. They cannot be separated. They only appear to be separated to someone who is not in tune with his/her emotions. So for people that are intellectuals types as Orloff described that have tendencies to think of emotions as crippling or try to avoid connecting emotions to thoughts, this just means that they have a false idea of what emotions are and what emotions do because of being out of touch with them. So I think the intellectual type that Orloff described is not that they are not using their emotions while they think, but that they are unaware of them and also suppressing them as they think (probably suppressing them due to a belief that emotions are crippling or sissy, whatever). I think in the overall picture, this suppression of emotions is actually stifling their thoughts and their being connected to their thoughts. JMO
I do not see how meditation with the purpose of removing thoughts and then experiencing emotions is going to really help someone reach a point of being connected with his/her emotions. I think that this would just further cause an apparent separation between emotions and thoughts to that individual. JMO
I think the best thing to do to help an intellectual type get in tune with his emotions is if he can think and try to sense the emotions that are there WHILE he is thinking because the emotions ARE there, just that someone may have trained himself to suppress them and not to recognize the emotions that are present. This could be a meditation practice itself. This would allow that person to see how powerful and valuable that emotions really are in how one thinks and is able to think, and the connection between thoughts and emotions and that they are completely intertwined to awareness. Emotions are a very powerful tool in thinking. People that are thinkers (intellectual types with tendencies to avoid emotions) are actually using their emotions every minute while they are thinking, only those people may not realize it or tend to suppress those emotions. JMO
Thinking is a byproduct of emotions and emotions are caused by subconscious and conscious thoughts. They are entirely connected aspects to our beings. Emotions are powerful tools too help us make decisions, think, and have passion in our thoughts. This is my opinion.
I actually have a theory why most guys have difficulty connecting emotions to thoughts, and I think this is because they have been domesticated to believe that emotions are somehow not macho or sissy, and their entire lives have suppressed them. I also think that guys tend to think of emotions as crippling and that they will be more successful and less susceptible to hurt from their surroundings if they try to put their emotions in a box.
Women on the other hand have been encouraged their entire lives that their emotions are part of their thinking and to put their emotions to full use. At least most of them.
JMT (just my theory…lol)
Oh, emotions are triggered in the brain just as thoughts are, as far as i know.
You said you didn’t care about my long emails, Dr. Lam…lol
I hope this doesn’t scare anyone away!
ok, interesting take on meditation. i think guys too are just hardwired differently than girls. they tend to be left brain dominant, more analytical, and per force, less emotional. not all obviously.
sml