Two Little Sisters: Thinking & Feeling

The human mind is a landscape for emotions, ideas, and thoughts that come in varying dimensions.

In this canvas, I see an ever-present contrast — one part that is methodical and works on “to-do” lists and the other which simply wants to enjoy the little joys we find like catching a ray of sunshine, playing with a frosted windowpane, or sipping a warm cup of tea.

As I was torn between these two halves of my mind, the characters of two little sisters took shape and came to life. Here, I write a short story about them and how they have come to shape my outlook.

Once upon a time, in a town called ‘The Mind’ that stretched from nowhere to everywhere, with many crooked lanes and convoluted roads, there lived two little sisters named Thinking and Feeling.

They built boats for a living. Thinking was the bigger sister — strong, tall, and dominant. She was in control. Feeling — the younger sister — was still a little girl, innocent, and was often chided by Thinking for being weak and naive.

Thinking was very goal-oriented and wanted to be the best boat-builder in all of the Mind and beyond. She was always devising cool plans, crafting precise schedules, and organizing detailed to-do lists.

Now, Feeling on the other hand was a daydreamer often to Thinking’s frustration.

When left alone, Feeling loved to simply lay on the grass, soak up the sun, dance on the beach, buy cuddles from neighborhood cats and talk to every little fairy and wood-elf in town.

To Thinking, this felt like a huge waste of time. She was always impatient for her little sister to catch up with what Thinking wanted to be built already.

Thinking believed that tomorrow needed to be planned for — meticulously. Feeling on the other hand was always taking her sweet time. For the better or worst, the sisters had to stick together to survive.

Thinking was always overprotective of her sister whom she perceived as fragile and weak. Feeling, she thought, left alone would make the Mind a useless place. Feeling was also often reckless and wanted to sometimes sail in bad weather and at other times do nothing all day!

One day arrived when the sky was all cloudy over the Mind. Feeling was chilling and watching the shifting clouds.

Thinking stomped up to her and remarked impatiently that they needed to finish their “to-do” list. Feeling could barely bring herself to do even a single task.

The day ended with Thinking disappointed in Feeling.

Seeing her sister suffer from having had no sense of accomplishment, Feeling suggested that they take a walk to the Mind’s End to watch the sunset.

Arriving there, the sisters sat together in silence and watched the sun come alive as a big golden ball, before disappearing again into the cloudy horizon leaving glorious streaks of golden, violet, and pink in its wake.

After they had sat together for long enough doing nothing, Feeling whispered to Thinking, “Maybe days like these are OK, Thinking.

What do you say? We did nothing that you had planned, but, I feel recharged and we have watched a sunset together!”

Thinking thought for a while and said, “Feeling, I am always worried about you. You are so fragile and you’re always doing things that are not always planned. Sometimes you take the boat out on a rainy day and on other days you barely get anything done. We only have each other and I need to protect you.”

Feeling listened and smiled, saying, “I am both fragile and strong at once, Thinking. I might not get anything done today, but, tomorrow I might get it all done. Maybe I go out in the storm, and maybe I will learn to heed your words, but I want to try first. It would be nice if we work together in this way.”

Thinking let her words sink in and nodded her head.

From then on, Thinking slowly worked towards changing her perception of Feeling. Although she personally found it hard to not operate on “shoulds” and “musts”, every now and then, she loosened up to let Feeling lead.

She recognized that Feeling had her own way with things: falling down often, accepting it, picking herself up, and trying again. She was actually strong and only became stronger by learning from any mistakes she made.

Eventually, the sisters became wiser together working with each other and shaping each other's perspectives.

Thinking still made her rigorous plans and built boats equipped with everything needed for bad weather, but, she did not stop Feeling from going out now and then into the storm.

She still had her detailed “to-do” lists, but, took time to hang out, watch a sunset or play in the sand with Feeling from time to time. Together, the sisters became the best of boat-builders in all of the Mind and beyond.

Why did I tell this story? Like many people out there who probably relate, I too am often confused between the thinking and feeling attributes of my personality.

However, by recognizing that these two need to work in tandem, I came to recognize feelings like happiness, pain, envy, anger, frustration, love, sadness, missing, fear as cues to fine-tune my thinking rather than as perilous aspects that need to be controlled or suppressed.

By integrating these different wirings in our minds, I believe, we grow in emotional intelligence individually and collectively.

Note: These are just my thoughts. Feel free to leave any suggestions that you would like to discuss and I would be happy to write back to you. If you could relate to what I have written, do let me know. I am always happy to hear from those who read my writing!