Top Down versus Bottom Up Processing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBbWfuqPL2A

Video Summary:

For this week's video blog, I included a clip of a Q&A session on Zoom for Chapter 4 of my book, Natural Way of Being, that happened on May 4. It begins with me answering a question that was emailed in: Can you provide more examples of pure feelings versus thought-based feelings, where anger and passion fall?

I want to talk about pure feelings and thought-based feelings in a different way. Perhaps you've heard the concept of top-down versus bottom-up processing. Top-down means that the way we feel is oriented through our mind or intellect - it's the CEO or captain of the ship.

So when James does something, my mind doesn't like it, I create this thought, and that thought generates anger. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is largely top-down in that it encourages you to change your thoughts so you can change your feelings.

Now the opposite is bottom-up processing. And so here, we walk with our hearts open and feel a pure feeling. So when James is talking to me, I allow his energy in and hear his intent. So now maybe it's not pissing me off as much.

Perhaps I realize that's just James's way of saying he’s sorry. Then I might consider well not how I would've explained it, but how sweet that he said that, and so now I have a whole different feeling.

So with bottom-up processing, the mind becomes the servant of the heart. So the heart is the capital of the ship. We're honoring and following our intuition, empathy, compassion, and joy.