Thoughts, Emotions And Feelings

Charlottesville

March 29, 2022

Probably no surprise that this topic interests me. 🤪

I find I often conflate these three ideas -- thoughts, emotions and feelings. So I'm writing this post to remind myself of the difference among them.

Yesterday I read a good way to distinguish between a thought and a feeling or an emotion. A thought is in the form of a sentence but a feeling or an emotion is a single word. So, if someone asks, "How are you feeling?" and you answer with a sentence, you might be sharing a thought rather than a feeling. Another way of looking at the difference is thoughts are ways of dealing with feelings -- feelings come first. Thoughts are ways of dealing with feelings – ways of, as it were, thinking our way out of feelings – ways of finding solutions that meets the needs that lie behind the feelings.

The distinction between an emotion and a feeling is a bit more complex:

While emotions and feelings are quite different, we all use the words interchangeably to more or less explain the same thing – how something or someone makes us feel.

However, it’s better to think of emotions and feelings as closely related, but distinct instances – basically, they’re two sides of the same coin.

Here is how they differ.

What are emotions?

Imagine this: You sprint through the airport, on the run to catch your flight. While you try to make your way through the crowd of people waiting in line at the security check, you spot an old friend you haven’t seen in ages.

Before you can say anything, you tear up overwhelmed with excitement (and forget about the rush) while you give your friend a firm hug.

Emotions are lower-level responses occurring in the subcortical regions of the brain (for example, the amygdala, which is part of the limbic system) and the neocortex (ventromedial prefrontal cortices, which deal with conscious thoughts, reasoning, and decision making).

Those responses create biochemical and electrical reactions in the body that alter its physical state – technically speaking, emotions are neurological reactions to an emotional stimulus.

The amygdala plays a key role in emotional arousal. It can regulate the release of neurotransmitters in the hippocampus, an area central to memory consolidation. One theory is that this is why emotional memories are usually perceived as stronger and are so long-lasting.

Can emotions be measured?

Emotions are physical and instinctive, instantly prompting bodily reactions to threat, reward, and everything in between. The bodily reactions can be measured objectively by pupil dilation, skin conductance, brain activity (EEG, fMRI), heart rate (ECG), and facial expressions

What are feelings?

While emotions are associated with bodily reactions that are activated through neurotransmitters and hormones released by the brain, feelings are the conscious experience of emotional reactions.

Originating in the neocortical regions of the brain, feelings are sparked by emotions and shaped by personal experiences, beliefs, memories, and thoughts linked to that particular emotion. Strictly speaking, a feeling is the side product of your brain perceiving an emotion and assigning a certain meaning to it.

Interestingly, this process works both ways: While an actual encounter with a spider (stimulus) might freak you out, just thinking of it can activate the same emotional response.

Can feelings be measured?

The conscious nature of feelings makes it quite easy to measure them using self-reporting tools such as interviews, surveys, and questionnaires including rating scales and self-assessment procedures.

Emotions versus Feelings

Despite it has been over two-hundred years since feelings were discovered, there is still a lot we don’t know about them. But it can be said that we have made tremendous progress in expanding our knowledge and we’re still not done. One thing people often get wrong, however, is the belief that emotions and feelings are the exact same thing. Now, they may be similar, but they are not the same thing, whatsoever.

The concept of emotions was discovered thirty years before feelings, around the 1800’s by Thomas Brown. Years later during the 1970’s, psychologist Paul Eckman, concluded that humans had six different emotions: happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise and anger. However, as studies continued, it was quickly discovered that, that number is a lot higher than first believed. Raising the number six to a shocking twenty-seven and debates that claim the total number of emotions are even higher that twenty-seven, are still taking place to this day.

Now that we know the story behind emotions, what exactly are they and how do they differ from feelings?

There is a reason as to why we say ’emotional feelings’ and that is because emotions are what cause feelings. Emotions are a physical response to our environment; this means emotions are aroused before feelings. And due to emotions being physical, it can be easy to identify them, with observation. Feelings, however, are mental associations and reactions to our emotions and because they take place in our mind, rather than our body like emotions, it’s a lot harder to identify a feeling.

For example, imagine you are scared of the dark and all the lights in your home go out due to a storm. Now your body will represent fear, your eyes are open wide and you’re moving slowly. But on the inside, you’re feeling cautious and worried, perhaps even nervous. Those are the feelings that come with that specific emotion. In conclusion, emotions take place on your body while feelings take place in the mind.

‍An emotion is a physical state as a result of stimuli. A feeling is your mental experience of the emotion and its context. A thought is all the words you use to describe it. Our thoughts often skip labeling the emotion.