Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Feelings versus Emotions and How We Control Them

I would contend that feelings and emotions are not the same thing, but emotions may be a subset of feelings.  Emotions are felt, but many other things are felt as well.  If you bite on the end of your finger you feel pressure.  If you touch an ice cube, it will feel cold, and a stove will feel hot.  These sensations are clearly feelings, but obviously not emotions.

If you lose something important, you may feel sad as a result.  If you discover that someone stole what you are missing, you may feel angry.  If you manage to get it back, you may feel happy about that.

Pain is an interesting feeling, because it can be a both a physical sensation, and an emotional one, depending on the situation.  It is clearly a physical sensation when we injure our bodies; it is the body's primary way of communicating problems to the mind.  But we can also feel pain in a very real way without a physical source, purely from the situation we are in or our relationships with others.

Since emotions effect how we feel, this brings up the question of, can we control them?  I have been raised being told constantly that we choose how we feel, and I never believed that for a moment.  At least in its simplistic form, I am sure that we can’t will ourselves to be happy or for our pain to go away, but we can consciously ignore or suppress our feelings.  I would argue that we don't directly consciously control or feelings or emotions, but that over time our reactions to them will effect how we experience them.

This is easier to illustrate with physical feelings.  Put a hat on and you will feel it constricting your head, good luck consciously willing that feeling to go away, but if you wait a few minutes, you won't even notice it anymore.  Pain works the same way over longer periods of time.  If we ignore physical pain for long enough, we will adjust to it, and while it will still be there, it will not have nearly as strong of an effect on us.  There was a time in my life when no amount of physical pain could cause me to cry.  I had built up enough walls internally, that I observed my pain more than I felt it.  Emotional pain was still able to penetrate to a degree, but that was probably muted as well.  It is probably easier for us to build up a tolerance for emotional pain, as it is usually less of an acute sensation.  We become numbed to our problems if we continue to ignore them.  In this way we definitely can control our feelings, and our emotions.

If we suppress our emotions, they don't necessarily cease to exist; we just become less conscious of them.  Since they are very much still there, that leaves the potential for them to grow in strength while we aren't paying attention, and "sneak up on us" unexpectedly.  This is why some people emotionally explode at a minor provocation after keeping things bottled up inside for a long time.

I know people who deliberately cry if it has been a while, just to get it out, as a catharsis or sorts.  In that way, it is possible to consciously influence our emotions in the immediate, but I would say they are fairly limited.  If you deliberately dwell on sad thoughts, you will feel sadness, and if you focus on your own failings you will feel guilty, but only for a short while.  Those "artificial" emotions don't compare to the ones that occur within us naturally, based on our situations and perspective.  Those situations and perspective are results of decisions we have made, so in that way we influence our emotions as well, but this is an indirect relationship.  I can’t just consciously will myself to be happy all of the time, I have to make decisions and choices that eventually bring about that result in my life.

Love is also an emotion, but that is only one of its many forms.  We may not necessarily be able to control who we love, but we certainly choose who we show love to.  Maintaining deliberate control over our actions regardless of how we feel is a way in which we can control our feelings as well.

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