Emotions & Feelings Introduction

Introduction

If you ask someone, “what are you feeling?” they will tune into a jumble of “something” inside them that usually includes thoughts and memories along with bodily sensations that they may or may not be consciously aware of.

The name that people typically give to that jumble they are experiencing is known as a feeling or emotion: excited, afraid, irritated, sad, optimistic, peaceful and so on.

The words “feeling” and “emotion” are commonly considered interchangeable and, therefore, differentiating them may have little practical value. But when digging into the difference, typically the point is that emotions are a phenomenon marked by an energy with a biochemical effect while feelings are a subjective interpretation of that energy.

For example, consider that we can suppress feelings — meaning that we don’t consciously acknowledge that we’re sad or angry, for example. But the biochemistry and physiology of emotions are occurring despite our lack of acknowledgement.  (In fact, this is an especially significant topic. Understanding what is happening physiologically and chemically is quite important and is covered in the next lesson. We learn about Candace Pert’s research that led her to find biochemical reasons for our experience that “issues live in the tissues.”)

Arguably the most important thing to know about emotions is that they involve physiological and chemical actions in the body.