| The Rideau Institute on International Affairs is an independent research and advocacy group based in Ottawa. It provides research, analysis and commentary on public policy issues to decision makers, opinion leaders and the public. It is a federally registered non-profit organization, established in January 2007. Authentix Coaches supports the mission of Canada's Rideau Institute. On the subject of Afghanistan, the Institute carries a comment by our Principal, Angus Cunningham, at the following link. |
Affects can be positive, or negative. If an idea arises in a mind possessed by a positive affect, it will naturally be an optimistic one. Conversely, if an idea arises in a mind possessed by a negative affect, it will naturally be a pessimistic one. Pessimistic ideas do not naturally emerge from minds possessed by a positive affect. Likewise, optimistic ideas do not naturally emerge from minds possessed by a negative affect. But the tone of our thinking can sometimes change from pessimistic to optimistic. Furthermore, if we want to and decide consciously to do so, we can often actually change the tone of our thinking from pessimistic to optimistic, or vice versa . However this may not always be a natural shift. Indeed, it may require discipline and/or inspiration, or even the leadership presence of an authentically empathic other for such a shift to occur. Nonetheless the capacity to shift one's state of being from one possessed by either a positive or a negative affect to one in which we experience a state of being free from affect can evolve from either taking appropriate action, or from the practice of a gentle self-discipline, or from an 'emptying' by meditation practices in which the finding of freedom from affect, or equanimity, and living in and from such states of inner peace is held to be very valuable. When our minds are possessed by an affect, whether positive or negative, we will either need, want, or desire to express ourselves. We may do so verbally, or we may do so by another means of expression, or if we have time, by meditation. But until we do so, we will feel internal pressure, or stress. Consequently, holding our own needs, wants, or desires for expression in order to extend the empathy of hearing another’s expression requires self-discipline. Experience of states of being that are not rooted in an affect are called equanimous states. Such states are what some people call 'being connected to Divine energy', compassion, or love in the language of "NVCers" (people respectful of the ideas articulated in Marshall Rosenberg's book "Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life"). Ideas emerging from these states are neither optimistic nor pessimistic. When they are tested by objective means, which is to say by an empirical or scientific test, they typically are found to be rational insights. In short, if we are certain we are in an equanimous state, we can have confidence that our verbalizations of ideas emerging therefrom will, if we have the language or artistic skills to articulate/express them accurately, manifest as rational insights – as distinct from the intuitions we have while in a state of either positive or negative affect: .. |
| Ideas often get verbalized, i.e. emerge, from what psychologists term an affect, which is either a more-or-less passing emotion or a more-or-less stable (or stuck) mood: |
| IHXEN Partnering & Rational Decision-Making: Ideas, Affects, and the Elusive States of Equanimity (c) 2008-2012 by Angus Cunningham Principal, Authentix Coaches |
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These observations of the relation of ideas to the affects in which they arise, of the nature of positive and negative affects, and of the means available to achieve equanimous states of being tell us that, when we feel the need to make a decision in circumstances involving more than simple escape from an imminent danger, we will be wise first to enter deliberately, if we can, an equanimous state. (Of course, in circumstances such as the imminence of getting run over by a bus, our instincts serve us better. 'Personally rational' decision-making in such circumstances is already programmed into us as an instinctive inheritance). Traditionally, we have entered equanimous states by means either of meditation or of the processes of scientific analysis involving empirical observations and 'peer review' of our conclusions. In meditation, we deliberately take ourselves as far as possible from externals that we know would, if we kept them present in mind, impose upon us an affect. In scientific analysis, we deliberately acquire as much certainty as possible as to what our externals actually are or will be. The specific methods available to us for either meditation or scientific analysis are many. But whichever we use, we seek a course of action or intention that will satisfy us by comparison with a range of criteria, i.e. be either useful or personally and socially healthy for us to implement. And unfortunately, if we fail to enter an equanimous state before making our decision among the options then known to us, the outcome may advance only our own well-being at the expense of others or only others' well-being at our own expense -- both of which have the consequence that we will advance neither for long. “I have X emotion now” is a linguistic that helps us become conscious of, but not helpless in, whatever affect may be biasing our minds. This linguistic is known by the acronym IHXEN, which is conveniently pronounced Eye-Zen. Articulating an IHXEN empowers us consciously to label our emotions. UCLA scientists at the National Institute of Mental Health have demonstrated with fMRI scans that labeling our emotions is a source of relief from strongly negative ones like anger and fear. Thus utterance of an authentic IHXEN linguistic can be a relief from strong negative affects. With further practice, one can use IHXENs to learn to “shift one's being” into the "spaces" between mildly positive and mildly negative affects -- until we know by reference to both that we are in an equanimous state between the two. Authentix Coaches have proved this in practice with our clients. If you click on the following link you will find some client testimonials to this. You can also find a brief account of an Authentix coaching engagement in which one of our clients won a spectacular pay-off from his investment in IHXEN coaching. We can articulate IHXENs privately or we can, of course, exchange them with another. Because we virtually all grow up quite skilled at perceiving the affect "governing" our caregivers, we can reasonably expect another to recognize whether our own honestly articulated IHXENs are accurate. Since few of us are fully consciously aware of our affects, having an IHXEN partner with whom one agrees to exchange IHXENs can be very helpful in gaining IHXEN proficiency and hence, knowing quickly and accurately when we need, to regain equanimity, either meditation or engagement in rational conversation or recourse to engagement in a scientific process. If we lack such a partner, we can resort to writing and explaining our IHXENs, and, if we then later read our writing, it will give us feedback, albeit delayed. Thus, either through partnering or through journaling, we can use the IHXEN linguistic to gain proficiency in knowing very accurately what our emotions are. In this way we can both know when our states are equanimous or otherwise and discover what in the way of rational action or meditation will lead us to equanimity. Once “IHXEN self-aware”, one finds one rapidly gains clarity as to what one’s present needs, wants, and desires truly are. One also can learn progressively how to reach equanimous states when meditation is, for practical reasons, socially difficult or practically impossible. Since these are, of course, the only states of being from which we can distinguish insight from intuition and thus make truly rational decisions, being able to reach them quickly through IHXENs is a helpful skill to add to our choice/decision/course-making repertoires. Lastly, since IHXENS are today quite unconventional -- although executives do frequently intone "I have concern ..." when wanting to convey empathy, the utterance of IHXENs feels unnatural initially. I have therefore found that my clients need preparation and practice in the articulation and exchange of IHXENs in order to become proficient in applying them to major decisions. I usually provide this by modeling a few "I have gratitude ...'s", "I have concern .....'s", etc., which are IHXENs representing emotions I can articulate naturally, i.e. without any degree of difficulty that might strike my clients as lacking in authenticity; and I then proceed to prepare my client to be "OK" with my use of the word emotion in relation to both someone not present and myself. Then, at a time when I feel very certain that my client is having trouble expressing authentically, I will very carefully relieve him/her from the temptation to resort unwittingly to flight into inaccuracy or (even fantasy!) with the following: "I have curiosity now", which will then indeed be very true. "What emotion do you have now?". I can then help my client to articulate what we both agree is an authentic IHXEN for the circumstance in which he/she took off in a flight of inaccuracy/fantasy (verbal manure). In the process, the client will invariably get an insight into something that has been a considerable mystery to that point. It may be a personal insight, i.e. one about his/her own pattern of habitual behaviour, or it may be an insight into his/her enterprise or organizational work or career or priority relationship. In any case it will in due course become a key factor in recognizing the specifics of the need, want, or desire from which an emotion always springs. When each partner feels that the IHXENs exchanged are accurate, it has become time to identify the needs to which the emotions "point". At this stage the following table outlining a range of possible "articulator intents" can be used, along with other models of interpersonal rationality, to facilitate, through the IHYNN process, discussions that clarify real, as distinct from spurious, needs: .. |