Practicing Organization Development: A Guide for Leading Change: A Third Edition

FEELINGS: A CONTEXT

Having feelings is a basic aspect of being alive; feelings give color and dimension to our thoughts and actions. Without them, our experiencing of the world would be without flavor. But feelings can be powerful, exciting, or disturbing, and most people experience some problems with them. Starting in childhood, we develop the ability to ignore difficult feelings, and even to forget that we are ignoring them. We may be sad but are unaware of that sadness. Or even though we are aware of a feeling, we may be unable or unwilling to share our experiencing of it with others. For example, we may feel demeaned and be aware of it, but we put on a mask to hide the feeling from others. When we do, we are not of one piece; we do not ...