feelings versus emotions

[in progress]

I heard something recently I thought was interesting. I hope I'm remembering it right.

It was about the difference between feelings and emotions. It was something like feelings are what we get from our body and when we don't know what it means we assign an emotion to it!

Anybody run across this idea before or something similar to it?

[andrew g]

Originally Posted by in progress

I heard something recently I thought was interesting. I hope I'm remembering it right.

It was about the difference between feelings and emotions. It was something like feelings are what we get from our body and when we don't know what it means we assign an emotion to it!

Anybody run across this idea before or something similar to it?

I havent come across that exactly, but what I would say is that there is only ever 'feeling'. 'Feeling' is the energy of life itself, we cant totally escape feeling even when we are totally lost in mind because we ARE life. When we are disconnected to some degree from feeling, through being lost in mind, we experience mental-emotion instead. So to be in a state of pure feeling is to be empty, but we have been conditioned for the most part to be scared of this emptiness. So we create emotion instead - anger, fear, pain, shame, guilt.....its all emotion we create rather than allow the emptiness and pureness of 'feeling'.

I am a little wary of applying qualities or attributes to 'feeling' but I would describe it as a lightness, a joy, an ease and a gratitude. So I would say its ALWAYS there, its always present, but most of the time we are so busy 'creating' and basically getting in the way that we dont experience the lightness, the ease and the joy very purely. So I think its really just a case of allowing what is already here and now, though in doing so we might also have to allow the top layers of emotion that have been stored up in the body and which we have already created. The moment we allow is the moment we are reconnected fully with 'feeling' even if it is a little uncomfortable initially because of the emotions.

[sound]

Originally Posted by in progress

I heard something recently I thought was interesting. I hope I'm remembering it right.

It was about the difference between feelings and emotions. It was something like feelings are what we get from our body and when we don't know what it means we assign an emotion to it!

Anybody run across this idea before or something similar to it?

Hi in progress
Whenever I see a thread surrounding emotion I try to respond in some small way because it is such a difficult subject matter to 'talk about', for me anyway, and for that very reason I 'feel' I need to explore it in a little more depth than some other 'stuff' ...

I accept that my emotion is the primary energetic experience and then my feelings arise from that experience ... feelings seem to be an offshoot of the thoughts and beliefs I attach to the emotion I am experiencing at any givien time ... I feel the energy of emotion ... I don't know ... it can get very muddled ... one thing I have discovered is that I struggle when someone tells me how/what I should feel lol

[andrew g]

Hi Kate,

Just reading that my thought was that we have to acknowledge, honour and allow all the emotions in order to get to the feeling. They are the gateway. Having said that I still think its helpful to see how emotions are created i.e through beliefs we hold to be true.

When I saw a counsellor initially I was told that I should feel all my feelings (classic counsellor stuff!). So for the next year I told myself a lot of sad stories and cried and cried. And I felt my anger and my shame, and basically did everything I was told to do. But I basically got addicted to the emoting. I was using emotion in order to get to 'feeling'. So then I was given some other perspectives on the whole thing. I was told that I needed to not just honour the emotions but to take some responsibility for creating them too! So then I looked at how I was creating them, and it got even more interesting. I have come to see that there is a fine line between honouring them and indulging in them. There comes a time I think when we basically need to tell ourselves to stop moaning and allow the joy instead. There is a time to explore the full depts of the emotion and a time to tell ourselves to stop sulking about something that has happened and be grateful instead. I think the point Im making is that I see different times for different things.

[sound]

andrew I can barely read about emotion without getting all choked up lol ... emotion itself is a beautiful beautiful attribute/quality of consciousness slash life ... I can't imagine (with any measure of authenticity) life without It ... allowing the pure, raw energy of emotion to flow from within is just divine ... then we go and attach a whole lot of beliefs to it and thats where the sulking and sidestepping and wallowing enters into the equation ... either way we work through it with whatever degree of intensity/intention we 'desire' lol maybe perhaps sometimes lol

[andrew g]

Originally Posted by sound

andrew I can barely read about emotion without getting all choked up lol ... emotion itself is a beautiful beautiful attribute/quality of consciousness slash life ... I can't imagine (with any measure of authenticity) life without It ... allowing the pure, raw energy of emotion to flow from within is just divine ... then we go and attach a whole lot of beliefs to it and thats where the sulking and sidestepping and wallowing enters into the equation ... either way we work through it with whatever degree of intensity/intention we 'desire' lol maybe perhaps sometimes lol

I think the emotion and belief go hand in hand. Where there is emotion there is already a belief being believed. I understand that its hard to imagine life without emotion, but without emotion there is only the lightness, ease, joy and gratitude of being. I think that there is always feeling and we cant escape that, though sometimes one of the ways we try to escape feeling is through emotion! At other times we use the emotion to get TO feeling. I would say that emotion is divine, but feeling is more divine, because feeling is a quality of Source itself whereas emotion is an aspect of creation.

[sound]

Ne'er the twain shall meet Mr G lol on that count anyways however I thank you sincerely for sharing what you 'feel' surrounding emotion

I like this idea of using emotion to get to feeling... makes sense. I hold to the view that feeling (or clairsentience) in the purest sense is the most honest ability of all, because clarity and truth follows.

[andrew g]

Originally Posted by sound

Ne'er the twain shall meet Mr G lol on that count anyways however I thank you sincerely for sharing what you 'feel' surrounding emotion

Ok thats cool, thanks to you too :)

[Perspective]

I thought that feeling is an interpretation of thoughts & emotions are the way those feelings are set in motion, or expressed. However, I read,

A feeling is the response part of the emotion.

Maybe just semantics. But the more I think about it, emotions like joy, trust, sadness or anger - do start a motion within us physiologically - releasing hormones, etc.
I also read:

feelings have to be triggered by an external motivating factor whereas emotions can be completely internalized.

Feelings, emotions - are all filtered internally - through the brain...
Still, spiritually, we're sensing beings... (& not the same 5 senses)