So two years ago I was working in a multinational and I really soon realized that it wasn’t for me. But I really didn’t know what I wanted. I was just stuck.
I was stuck because I was just choosing my rational mind. I could argue so well rationally that I was going round and round in circles.
So I went on a retreat – the Hoffman Process – and that’s where I discovered that we have feelings. Obviously I already knew but I wasn’t using them. It took me a while that I realized that I needed to learn how to feel.
Every morning they would ask us: “What are you feeling?” and I would say “Great!” But they weren’t happy with that. So they gave us a long list of words, so I had to go through it and try to figure out what I was feeling.
It was hard, and I didn’t manage in a week. But I left having discovered that feelings were important and if I wanted to make good decisions for myself and find my way in life so that I would be happy, I would need to learn to feel and know what I was feeling.
So when I got back home I made a point to write it down everyday. I would write down how I was feeling and soon realized that I always came up with the same 10 feelings. Having seen the list, I knew that there were many more. I took out list and started looking through those, but that was pretty boring.
So I created a magnetic board that I put up in my room with lots of magnets and each magnet had an emotion on it. I wasn’t home enough though, so I soon had to create a portable version. That’s when friends and family started to notice them and ask me for them. I started making them and while I realized the effect they were having on me – I also saw how it was helping other people. So I thought, maybe there’s something there.
