I remember driving down the West Side Highway more than 16 years ago with my soon to be wife, when I was struck by this sign.  I commented that this message embodies the overwhelming American mentality: "If you feel it, you got to do it!"  

As a psychotherapist, I frequently discuss with my clients their underlying beliefs, such as that they can't go against their emotions.  We are in the business of helping people to manage their emotions so they don't run the show.  Clients find it refreshing when I tell them that they indeed don't have to "obey" their emotions, and that have been fed this lie by the media.  

I define maturity as the ability to choose to follow one's mind instead of the whims of their emotions.  A child wants the cookie, because it will just taste yummy.  Mature adults have learned to defer that feeling and need for pleasure, and choose based on what their minds tell them would be better. Learning this lesson is actually an ongoing process for us, and the therapeutic relationship is fertile ground for this growth.

In ways such as this, our job as therapists is so rectifying and healing!

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