[Neurons] 2022 Neurons #8 DISTINGUISHING FEELINGS & EMOTIONS

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2022 Neurons #8

February 28, 2022

Distinctions #8

 

DISTINGUISHING

FEELINGS & EMOTIONS

 

The difference between feelings and emotions is a tricky one and a confusion
that everybody falls into.  That arises mostly due to the English language.
These words (feelings and emotions) are used so synonymously, and so often,
as if synonyms that you hear it everywhere.  It is in the way we talk; it is
in the books and articles that we read.  It is everywhere!  So while I don't
see a change in this, we can change our understandings so that we are not
confused about the difference.

 

Now NLP does indeed make this distinction.  Feelings refer to the sensory
sensations that you experience with touch, smell, and taste.  It is the
internal or proprioceptions, also known as kinesthetic sense, and your
vestibular system.  The kinesthetics which are deep in your body are the
sensations (that is, feelings) and those that focus on the outward senses
(temperature, texture, etc.).  NLP has popularized the use of kinesthetics
to talk about feelings.  These feelings are not emotions.

 

An emotion is made up of feelings and cognitions.  This, in fact, is what
turns a kinesthetic sensation into a full-fledged emotion.  This also
explains why so many "emotions" feel so similar.  The kinesthetic sensations
are the same or very similar.  What differentiates the feeling from the
emotion are the cognitive understandings that you hold about something.
This frequently comes up in trainings, so I often explain that there are
five emotions which are pretty much made up of the same kinesthetics, the
same hormones, and the same activity in the neuro-pathways.  They are fear,
anger, stress, excitement, and lust.

 

All of these emotions involve the activation of the lower parts of the brain
(i.e., hippocampus, thalamus, amygdala) and the activation of the "general
arousal syndrome."  If you cognitively find something unpleasant-you may
experience stress in the form of fear and/or anger.  If you interpret the
event as desirable-then you may experience the same stress as excitement or
lust.  The differentiating factor are your thoughts-which arise from how you
interpret things, your semantic schema.

 

This means that feelings are not emotions and do not contain emotions, but
emotions involve and contain feelings.  Emotions is the higher logical level
and, in fact, are meta-states.  To create any emotion, you have to answer a
question like, "What do you think-or-feel about X?"  X could be an event, a
person, an idea, etc.  "What do you think-or-feel about a roller coaster?"
Whatever the person's answer, it will determine whether she will experience
fear or excitement.  "What do you think-and-feel about an action movie with
lots of car chases?"  Does it evoke excitement, fear, anger, or even lust?
It could.  It all depends on the way a person interprets that object of the
state;

 

Now when a person says "I feel X," you really don't know if the person is
talking about kinesthetic sensations or emotions.  So ask, "Are you speaking
about sensations in your body, some kinesthetic sensations, or are you
referring to an emotion?"  Sometimes this can be very confusing because we
humans often use the wrong word.  "I feel angry" could mean stress, upset,
frustrated, bothered, out-of-sorts, etc.  "I feel happy" could mean
contentment, satisfied, excited, pleased, healthy, and on and on.  In this
our emotional language is full of ambiguities and confusions which is why it
is always worth the trouble to dig a bit deeper to understand what a person
is actually saying.

 

To make the distinction, you can also ask, "Where in your body do you feel
X-feeling?"  As a general rule, if the person cannot point to where in the
body he feels it, it is probably a mixture of feelings (secondary, tertiary
feelings), an emotion, or a judgment.  "Where do you feel self-esteem?"
That's a mental judgment that comes from your concepts about self worth.
"Where do you feel forgiveness?"  Again, a judgment about how to treat an
ethical violation and how to think about the one who did it.

 

True feelings are kinesthetic sensations and out of them we create our
"emotions."  Inside of every emotion there is the kinesthetic component.
This is what gives the emotion its motion so that we are moved to go forward
or away from something.  The "e" (originally "ex") speaks about the motion
now moving us from where we were to somewhere else.  It comes from an
evaluation in your mind.;  And together these are key facets of emotional
intelligence, emotional well-being, and emotional energy and vitality. 

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton CO. 81520 USA

www.neurosemantics.com 

 

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