We are thoughtful and sensitive beings. Our way of thinking determines our feelings and, depending on what it causes us, we take it as proof of the truth of what we think, it is an incredible skill, but it can also hurt us.
“Depending on how we talk, we will live one way or another, and the world we perceive will be one or the other. -Oscar González-
To answer this question, three concepts must first be briefly defined:
The line between our ability to think and feel is tenuous and emotion is halfway between them.
In our day-to-day life and for our use of our language, we repeatedly use these three concepts as if they were synonymous, but the truth is that thinking, getting excited and feeling are very different things.
We are rational beings. This does not imply that emotions and feelings are alien and do not influence our personality, how we interpret the world, decision-making and how we raise our ideas.
We are concerned about our emotions and it is a human capacity that we must not take away from life. The reason without emotion or feeling doesn’t make sense.
Understanding how this relationship works within us is critical to fostering our emotional intelligence, how we relate to ourselves and others, and ultimately improving our mental health.
Emotion is associated with people’s personality and motivation, emotions are shorter than feelings and are the ones that motivate us to act, they are more intense than feelings, but they last less.
Feeling comes from the verb? And it refers to an emotional mood, usually long lasting, that appears in the subject as a product of emotions. Feelings are the result of emotions.
Let’s look at an example
I practice yoga. It is an activity that I love and that makes me feel good, I have been practicing for a while and it was a learning process in which I spent worse days and better days.
The truth is that, objectively, my performance in the activity improves at a good pace, and I am able to perform postures that initially seemed impossible.
Yesterday I went back to class and it was one of the days when my activity was under-performance, I couldn’t do poses that I could do without problems a few days ago.
My thoughts said, “I’m a mess, it’s not for me. “
My emotion conveyed to me, “I’m angry at myself. “
My subsequent feeling throughout the day was: “I feel sad and discouraged. “
The previous example, depending on how we analyze it, will determine my self-idea, the motivation to continue going to class and my attitude in the next course.
If I think I’m a mess, am I just a mess because I couldn’t do an exercise?Does this mean I’m a disaster from a bad shot?Don’t you learn by trial and error?
If my emotion is anger, does that mean if I get angry at myself, which I think is right?Does this emotion say anything really true about me?
If, after all, I feel sad, does that mean it was really important to me, everything we feel is a fluke?Is this feeling the result of what I think?
Here is the key to everything
Everything we think isn’t right. Emotions often don’t confirm what we think, just because we feel something doesn’t mean it’s true.
When you find yourself saying, “If I feel that way, then that’s for sure,” discover the automatic thinking that accompanies the emotion you feel and ask yourself: what did I think to start feeling that way?Do I have proof that he will?
It’s about questioning and thinking so that from time to time you don’t believe the stories you tell yourself.
The way we see the problem is the real problem.