Tag: universe

Feelings vs Emotions

There is a difference between a ‘feeling’ and an ‘emotion, and distinguishing one from the other is an important factor when it comes to our health. It’s true that we experience both emotions and feelings in our bodies. However, feelings cause tension that blocks the natural processes we rely on to understand and resolve our problems, whereas emotions, enable our bodily systems to do their job of keeping our bodies and minds healthy. Panic is not fear, frustration is not anger, pity is not sadness and fawning is not love. Only pure emotions can help us heal. Our emotions operate through a perfectly beautiful system based in and orchestrated by nature. One could indeed consider our emotional processing to ba a natural science.

We are primarily, emotional beings, our thinking is a byproduct of our feeling bodies. The emotions comes first, then the thoughts. Research by Antonio Damasio indicates that Descartes was mistaken when he claimed , “I think therefore I am.” Damasio has decreed from his research, that it would have been far more accurate had Descartes concluded, “I feel therefore I am”. Damasio’s work has proven that our emotions provide our brains with the information we use to understand ourselves and everything around us.

Damasio discovered through his research, that once the creative/emotional part of brain has been damaged, it hinders our ability to make decisions. The more damage, the more jeopardy to our decision making process. Damasio provides us with proof that our emotions are an integral part of the choices we make in our lives. Decision making  that is based upon, our emotional self, is information based on our reality and is the process by which we develop into our unique selves. Personally, it has given me great joy to think that the derogatory accusation, “you’re so emotional” may soon be understood as a complement.

Damasio distinguishes a feeling from an emotion in his book “Self Comes To Mind”, when he notes, “…feelings of emotion are primarily perceptions of our body state during a state of emotion.” In other words, ‘feelings’ are perceived, whereas ‘emotions’ are experienced. Feelings are perceptions of what is happening in situations that have evoked emotion. If we are perceiving, we are using our logical brains to draw conclusions in order to decide how we feel. Damasio cites pertinent brain research, that proves the existence of a reactionary, time lapse, as we go from experiencing an emotion to having a feeling. He writes, “The time frame….from the moment stimuli were processed, (emotion) to the moment the subjects first reported their perceptions (feeling), was about half a second.” Quite a substantial amount of time when one considers that a brain neuron can fire in about five milliseconds. Neurons are the brain cells that transmit information. Emotions happen in our bodies within the exact instant that a situation is occurring. Feelings lead to, and require words. The moment we are using perceptions to relay information about the emotional experience, it no longer qualifies as an emotion. Feelings require the use of our intellectual brain. Emotions preclude explanation. If we take into account everything Damasio is saying, we can conclude that, once we explain an emotion, it no longer qualifies as an emotion.

Our Emotional Nature

Dr. Frank Wilczek, the physicist and MIT professor, has written about the beauty of science as it relates to life. He reminds us that what we presently refer to as ‘science’, was at first called ‘natural philosophy’. There is a system to how our emotions function that is an example of natural philosophy at its best! Physics is a natural science that concerns itself with energy. Everything in the universe is comprised of energy, including us, and our emotions are an instrumental part of the energy that keeps our bodies functioning. The definition of energy in applied physics is, “that which does work”. Our emotions are energies that do work in our bodies, they keep our mental and physiological systems running well. It is a fact that a good cry triggers a chemical reaction within the body that is associated with stress reduction and that less stress means a stronger immune system. There are more obvious correlations, such as the emotion of love in the form of touch and care that keeps babies alive and growing. It’s been proven that food and shelter alone is not what keep babies alive but the emotion of love demonstrated in the way we care for them. It is the emotion  of love that enables babies to develop into healthy, resilient children.

We now have scientific research in the field of neuroscience that validates the effectiveness of therapies that help us to feel our emotions. We now know that what we feel in our bodies greatly affects our minds.

In the following pages, I will explain how our emotions work to heal us by putting our bodies and mind at peace. I will provide clear examples from my life and my work, that give evidence to my belief; that all of our problems come from conflicts that exist between the mind and the body. Nothing that happens in life can destroy us. It is not being able to feel what happened to us, that threatens to destroy our mental and physical health. Conflicts between what the body feels and what the mind thinks, negatively affect our health and our relationships. By denying our emotions, we stay stuck in conflict and false, inner dialogues that prevent us from knowing ourselves and living out our true destiny. Our emotions are the only means we have for knowing our truth. As long as our emotions are not operating freely, we are remaining separate from our truth, and separate from our own true selves. Until our mind/body are in harmony, we will find ourselves in conflicts that need to be resolved. Our internal conflicts will continue to create problems not only in our bodies and our minds, but also in our relationships, our communities and our world. Over the years, I have often thought of the biblical quote, “..and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”.  Nature intended us to keep feeling and processing our emotions so that we could know our truth and live and love better. We need to understand the meaning and purpose of our emotions, so that we can become less afraid of experiencing them. Living in our truth, ends all need for conflict. With a full awareness of our truth, our journey through life becomes unhindered by past unresolved problems. We become more at peace and one with nature. The worlds of science, health and spirituality are merging more and more. There are so many paths, but there is only one truth. Absence of truth will always interfere with science and nature. The truth aligns and harmonizes everything and everyone, and puts us in sync with the universe.

Good therapy should make it possible to understand why things go wrong in our lives and give us tools to set things right. Our emotions coupled with our imaginations are all the tools we will ever need. Nature gave us a way to not only survive, but to resolve everything, so that we might thrive and evolve individually and as a species.