Emotions & Feelings Introduction
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Themes
Overview
In this lesson, we introduce and define emotions and their significance.
Objective
Be familiar with multiple perspectives on how to define emotions and feelings, common issues around emotions, and the significance and practicality of being more skilled at working with emotional energy.
What You'll Get
Explain what may arguably be the most important understanding about emotions. Discuss the interchangeability of the words “feeling” and “emotion” but, when they are differentiated, a helpful way to do so. Describe the actual phenomenon that people are referring to when they use the word “feeling” or “emotion.” Describe what it is that people will tend to be describing when asked, “what are you feeling?” Discuss the profoundly significant contributions of Candace Pert, PhD to the scientific understanding of the mindbody connection and the biochemistry of emotions. Define emotion in multiple ways, noting the key takeaways from each, and provide a brief summary of qualities. Provide eight examples of how humanity is arguably confused by, distanced from, and immature in our understanding of emotion, and the benefits of becoming more skilled.
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.
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