Emotions vs. feelings are like a light-weight breeze vs. a full-blown storm—they might each be winds, however they’re utterly totally different experiences. That’s why psychology has truly separated these two phenomena.
Most individuals use them as one and the identical, although. But it surely’s necessary to know the excellence so you possibly can know how you can navigate the complicated world inside you.
So let’s discover the distinction between your emotions and your feelings:
When you get to know these nuances of your internal universe, you’ll be capable to stream by life with extra grace and ease. It’s like Jon Butcher, Lifebook creator and coach of Mindvalley’s Lifebook On-line Quest says, “Emotional perception comes from studying to know your feelings.”
What Are Emotions?
Emotions are alternative ways you expertise feelings. , like while you get that heat, fuzzy sensation after a praise or a pit in your abdomen while you’re nervous.
It seems that these emotions are literally fairly complicated.
Your private beliefs and reminiscences play a giant position in the way you expertise them. But it surely’s not simply all in your head—neurotransmitters and hormones additionally come into play.
- Consider serotonin as your happiness superhero, at all times swooping in to save lots of the day.
- Dopamine? That’s your go-to man for emotions of accomplishment and enthusiasm.
- What about norepinephrine? It might sound like a flowery latte, but it surely’s truly a stress hormone launched when your mind processes a troublesome scenario.
Basically, your physique is sort of a chemistry lab cooking up all this “gas” on your emotions.
What Are Feelings?
Feelings are felt within the mind. They act as a response to a scenario, adopted by a biochemical response that adjustments your bodily state. They’ve the facility to rework us from zero to hero—or vice versa—in a matter of seconds.
When one thing occurs that triggers an emotional response, the mind sends indicators to the remainder of the physique, leading to a bodily response. Because of this we’d really feel a rush of adrenaline once we’re scared or a wave of calmness once we’re comfortable.
However not all feelings are created equal. Whereas everybody experiences feelings, all of us have totally different triggers and intensities—basically, our personal emotional fingerprint.
Psychology has two principal theories for understanding feelings:
- The cognitive appraisal idea, which means that our feelings are our pure response to a life occasion. Whether or not we succeed or fail, our feelings replicate our notion of the scenario.
- The second idea, developed by William James, proposes that feelings characterize bodily adjustments. When our our bodies expertise variations in issues like perspiration, respiration, coronary heart price, and hormone ranges, they will set off totally different feelings.
Feelings are physique knowledge. They’re innate intelligence, indicators from deep inside us that come up in response to some side of actuality that we could not even take heed to. Feelings are there to inform us one thing.
— Jon Butcher, coach of Mindvalley’s Lifebook On-line Quest
What Is the Distinction Between Emotions and Feelings?
As talked about, the “emotions vs. feelings” confusion happens usually, however there are clear variations between the 2. So when you’re nonetheless questioning “Are emotions and feelings the identical?”, right here’s a side-by-side comparability:
| Emotions | Feelings |
| Psychological responses to skilled feelings | Instinctual, computerized, triggered by exterior stimuli |
| Manifest psychologically | Manifest bodily |
| Will be hidden | Will be simply seen by bodily reactions |
| Could also be long-lasting | Non permanent |
| It’s simpler to have management over them | Drive us to react in a sure approach |
Take a look at it this fashion: feelings are the preliminary spark, and emotions are the flame that retains burning.
For instance, while you see a spider, your preliminary response is likely to be worry—that’s an emotion. It’s uncooked, it’s instinctual, and it occurs with out aware thought.
Your emotions about spiders, alternatively, is likely to be totally different relying in your previous experiences. Should you have been bitten by one earlier than and had a foul expertise, your emotions in direction of them is likely to be stronger and extra adverse than somebody who has by no means had a foul expertise with the little creepy crawlies.
Emotions related to feelings
Feelings naturally come first, however then our brains and our bodies will connect and affiliate emotions with them.
Right here’s a visible illustration of feelings vs. emotions examples and the way they might be related to each other:
| Emotion | Related Emotions |
| Happiness | Delightness, confidence, self-acceptance |
| Anger | Jealousy, dissatisfaction, intolerance |
| Unhappiness | Disappointment, neediness, loneliness |
There’s one necessary factor to notice: folks usually consider that they don’t have a lot management over their feelings or emotions. It would appear to be they simply occur to you, however the reality is, you will have the facility to rework your self by your internal world.
As Jennifer Partridge, EFT knowledgeable and coach of Mindvalley’s Tapping Into Emotional Mastery Quest, says, “There’s one thing actually highly effective that occurs while you notice that you simply get to decide on the way you understand your experiences.”
What A part of the Mind Controls Feelings and Emotions?
Your mind is sort of a complicated machine with many components liable for totally different features. For emotional responses, particularly, science has discovered that the limbic system is liable for controlling them.
And that system is made up of 4 components:
- Hypothalamus
- Hippocampus
- Amygdala
- Limbic cortex
So, as a lot as feelings and emotions have a psychological trigger, they’re additionally strongly related to your physique and mind.
Study extra in regards to the connection between your mind and feelings: The Anatomy of Emotions: What A part of the Mind Controls Feelings?
Are There Any Common Feelings?
There are a number of sorts of feelings and emotions. The most typical psychological idea on what number of feelings there are is Robert Plutchik’s, who found eight main feelings:
- Anger
- Worry
- Happiness
- Curiosity
- Disgust
- Disgrace
- Shock
- Unhappiness
Whereas feelings are common and instinctual, emotions are usually not. Your persona and prior experiences form your emotions. So, they might range broadly from individual to individual.
Get extra readability on the number of feelings and emotions you expertise: How Many Feelings Are There? A Complete Feelings Checklist.
Incessantly Requested Questions on Emotional States
As a result of there was a lot confusion between emotions vs. feelings, it comes as no shock that there are further questions on them. Right here’s a dive right into a choose few:
Is love a sense or emotion?
Opposite to common perception, love just isn’t an emotion, no matter its use in popular culture. Love could really feel instinctual at occasions, but it surely’s extra carefully linked with the sensation of infatuation.
At first phases of infatuation, we could really feel shocked, anxious, jealous, and euphoric—typically suddenly. However this isn’t real love. Not at its core.
Lengthy-term love is a aware alternative, which makes it a sense. It’s not a intestine intuition; however somewhat a choice we make primarily based on our prior experiences.
What do totally different feelings imply?
Feelings are our our bodies’ reactions to an occasion that triggers a response.
It’s possible you’ll really feel worry when confronted with hazard. Or, you may really feel joyful when issues are going properly and you’ve got a robust sense of internal peace, security, and well-being.
Feelings carry us absolutely into the current second. Once we’re conscious of what’s happening round us, we really feel the push and pull of our emotional states.
The one actual approach to have energy over the current second is by being with it.
— Jennifer Partridge, coach of Mindvalley’s Tapping Into Emotional Mastery Quest
Completely different circumstances fire up totally different emotional responses. And relying on our previous experiences, we could also be roughly inclined to expertise particular emotions in consequence.
Why is it necessary to acknowledge your emotional states?
“You probably have a wholesome, open relationship together with your feelings, when you acknowledge, settle for, and honor them, when you deal with them as instruments of consciousness, you’ll have a built-in barometer that’s going that can assist you make good choices in life,” says Jon within the Lifebook On-line Quest.
Science has additionally proven that individuals who acknowledge and settle for their psychological and emotional experiences are inclined to have higher psychological well being. The truth is, studies have discovered that these people usually tend to expertise fewer adverse feelings when confronted with exterior stressors.
So, why not strive it out? Embrace your feelings and see what they will train you. Who is aware of? They could simply grow to be your new finest associates.
Open As much as the Knowledge Inside
Emotions vs. feelings are like two sides of the identical coin. They usually go hand in hand to let you expertise life to its fullest potential, with each darkness and light-weight.
Feelings make us fantastically human.
— Jennifer Partridge, coach of Mindvalley’s Tapping Into Emotional Mastery Quest
The reality is, we wouldn’t be capable to benefit from the presents of our existence if we didn’t have these experiences to information us by. And it’s important to know how you can deal with them with gentleness, given all of the sources they supply us with.
Should you want some insights into mastering your emotions and feelings, Mindvalley is the place to search for solutions. And with transformational quests comparable to Tapping Into Emotional Mastery or Lifebook On-line, you could find all of the knowledge you’ve been in search of.
By claiming your free access at the moment, you possibly can pattern lessons from Jennifer’s program or join a free masterclass with Jon and Missy Butcher.
Welcome in.