Feeling your Emotions

In the mundane world, we often use the word emotions and feelings interchangeably.  While I have always reminded myself not to be too hung up on diction, vocabulary and thus concepts, I do think it could be helpful at times when we can clarify certain misconceptions.  After all, the right view does help us to transform knowledge into knowing through our experiences, and consequently, create the right mindset.

Emotions are complex, messy and multi-facted, and exactly why most people shun away from them.  They may put heir emotions in exile, dismiss them or be in denial.  For some, they simply shut down and opt for numbness.  Whatever way you have chosen to mishandle your emotions in the past, it is through understanding them that you can reconnect with yourself.  

So often we have realised that there is an stimuli (external or internal) that triggers us and sends us right off to a reaction, almost happening as a knee-jerk reflex within seconds if not less.  If we were to play the entire episode in slow motion, what has really happened if that we have conducted an internal dialogue associated with criticism, blame or judgement in accordance to your belief system.  What has arisen next are physiological reactions like heart palpitations, rise in body temperature, churning stomach, muscle tension, etc etc.  At this juncture emotions are experienced automatically and unconsciously, and what are called emotions are no more than a cognitive label to those physiological arousal.  They are literally energy in motion (e-motion) and its French derivative émouvoir has a similar connotation which means to stir up.  So in a nutshell, emotions are snapshots of our physical state.  

When the brain interprets the emotions and connect with them, feelings occur.  Feelings are a totally right-brain matter and always counterintuitive to logic and reason, precisely the reason we compartmentalise them in the closet.  But of course, if unrecognised, they remain stored at the cellular level and could manifest in a physiological way as the initial response was at a somatic level.  You can now see how feelings are formed by emotions or rather, are their by-product.  The act of assessing and naming an emotion will transform it into an object of introspection and consequently make it less intense.  The moment you allow them to rear their head and embrace them, their substance change, almost alchemically.  It is just how we are naturally wired to pull ourselves out of the emotional quagmire so that we can sit back and let our mind, body and soul collaborate.  

Hence emotions without conscious feelings would not suffice, and would be analogous to having all the ingredients for a great recipe but without the chef.  The emotional impetus is a precursor for evolution, both individually or collectively.  We need them as barometers for decision-making and human advancement.  The emotional regulatory process is in place, and it is a matter of what we can learn from them and whether we can accept them wholeheartedly.