Richard: It is important to comprehend that the aim, the goal, of actualism practice is the enjoyment and appreciation of being alive right now – at this very moment of being alive and not indefinitely postponed off into some indeterminate future – via the minimisation of both the malicious/ sorrowful feelings (the ‘bad’ feelings) and their antidotal loving/ compassionate feelings (the ‘good’ feelings) in concert with the maximisation of the felicitous/ innocuous feelings, and how that (affective) enjoyment and appreciation *is* the very actualist awareness in action (as distinct from the buddhistic mindfulness, for instance, which requires cognitive engagement). What this means in effect is that, because one cannot help but be aware, each moment again, of even the slightest diminution of that experiential awareness (of that very enjoyment and appreciation of *feeling* as felicitous/ innocuous as is humanly possible) via *feeling* it diminish, cognitive attentiveness can be freely applied to whatever one is engaged in doing, in one’s moment-to-moment daily life, be it earning a living, reading/ watching various media, studying for examinations, and so on, and so forth.
You are right, and that's why is advised to go in this order: attentiveness --> cultivate felicity (if not felicitous at the moment) --> cultivate sensuousness.
But also there are times, at least in my case, when attending to sensuousness in neutral states triggers felicity and delight, and therefore create a more affective awareness. Attending to the senses can also help to diminish the overwhelming "bad" feelings by stopping their fueling and momentum, like an anchor to get the neurotic self out of giving them attention (a product of concentration perhaps?).
So maybe it could be more like a virtuous cycle rather than a linear one, when we talk about the order of the factors, or maybe that the Buddhist techniques help to get to better baselines (you know, to firmly hold the stem to facilitate the uprooting via other methods), but only when one do so with pure intent in mind (the intent to go all the way according to the PCE).