What Is The Difference Between Emotions And Feelings?

[bazera]

Hey, 

I have been thinking about this for a while now, and it seems like to me that I can't quite find the right answer. So, what are the emotions and what are the feelings? Emotions are feelings itself right? Feelings that we feel inside of our body, in different parts of our body to be exact. But we all know that what we feel is called feelings, obviously. But we do also feel emotions right? 

What is the difference between those two?

I am a bit confused here, so I would be glad if somebody suggests some answers to the question. 

[Aldo Marchand]

@bazera

7 minutes ago, bazera said:

Hey, 

I have been thinking about this for a while now, and it seems like to me that I can't quite find the right answer. So, what are the emotions and what are the feelings? Emotions are feelings itself right? Feelings that we feel inside of our body, in different parts of our body to be exact. But we all know that what we feel is called feelings, obviously. But we do also feel emotions right? 

What is the difference between those two?

I am a bit confused here, so I would be glad if somebody suggests some answers to the question. 

I understood the question. I think that emotions are the names that we give to the feelings like sadness, happiness and etc.

There are some feelings that we can't name very precisely and we call them as intuition.

Bad intuitons or good intuitions for feelings that are unlabeled.

 

[Henri]

@bazera Be sure you make a distinction between emotions and feelings. Lots of people don`t know the difference. Emotions are from the head and come up with the thinking process.  Feelings are from the heart and are independent of the thoughts

[bazera]

@Aldo Marchand So you say that emotions are just labels? So sadness for example, is it a feeling or an emotion? Whenever I feel sad, I label the feeling inside my body as "sadness". Should I consider that label as an emotion? 

@Henri I kinda don't understand what you're saying. Can you give me an example? 

[Mad Cat]

English language usually uses these words interchangeably, however, I find there is a very important distinction. Emotions are typically negative, and always connected to the past; they result from the build-up of unexpressed feelings. Feelings are the same sort of energy, but allowed to flow properly and be expressed in the present moment.  The experience of the two is like night and day: when you are gripped by emotion you feel heavy, contracted, disconnected with the other, misunderstood, trapped in old patterns, defensive, etc. However when you experience your feelings and express them freely (positive or negative) you feel light, open, connected, accepted, spontaneous, loving, etc.

It can be very difficult to not be dragged in to an emotional state when others around you dredge up their emotions, the best way I've found to deal with this is to take some distance for a short while, go do some physical activity to shake everything up and then come back and communicate about the unexpressed feelings driving the situation out of control.

Edited February 20, 2016 by Mad Cat

[Keyblade Viking]

This video is fucking awesome and while I haven't reached any deep understanding of it myself he explain that Emotions come from the Guts ("you got the "guts" to do that") below the heart and the thoughts come from above, Feelings are the children of the two and arise from the heart.

(at least I think he say that in this video, it's been a long time since I watched it but I think it's this one, anyway there's so much more to it that you'll want to see)

 

 

[Aldo Marchand]

2 hours ago, bazera said:

@Aldo Marchand So you say that emotions are just labels? So sadness for example, is it a feeling or an emotion? Whenever I feel sad, I label the feeling inside my body as "sadness". Should I consider that label as an emotion? 

@Henri I kinda don't understand what you're saying. Can you give me an example? 

I say that we can have feelings that we labeled like specific emotions described by names to help the communication and understanding.

It's possible to assume that some emotions we feel don't even have a name

[Henri]

@bazera  It`s a topic that goes all the way to the root of manifestation and one that`s terribly understood by western society.

At first, when new on the path of self-development, it is important to make the distinction between emotions and feelings in, lets say a raw way. So emotions dwell up after a thought has arisen and is situated in the head. Being aware of that makes it easy to deal with them by doing meditation. Emotions are therefore mostly negative forces like anger, worries and so on, though positive emotions are also there but they are of no problem. 

Feelings however are located in the heart-section and are independent of all the thinking stuff. These feelings are compassion, love, happiness and so on. You could even say it`s the place human values arise from and they are your very nature.

This makes it easier to distinguish between happiness from the mind where the ego is involved and happiness from the heart which is a total different story. This is all like a practical advice and not a profound theoretical framework because when you move further up the road things change.

You can find out that emotions in the head are linked with sensations in the body, thus being able to heal yourself from past errors.

You can find out that feelings is not only situated in the heart but can be experienced in all chakra`s.

The profound differences there are in the different kosha`s regarding feelings and sensations and the science of prana. And so much more.

If you want to dive a little bit deeper into this topic a good starter would be `The Human Psyche: In Love, War and Enlightenment` by Peter Snow.

Regards