Is there a difference between a feeling and an emotion?

[dscross]

I've been thinking about this recently, and although the two words are used interchangeably, I believe there is a distinct differences between feelings and emotions.

Feelings and emotions are two sides of the same coin and highly interconnected, but are two very different things. What do you all think...?

Emotions - originally helped our species survive by producing quick reactions to threat, reward, and everything in between in their environments. Emotional reactions are coded in our genes and while they do vary slightly individually and depending on circumstances, are generally universally similar across all humans and even other species. For example, you smile and your dog wags its tail. Emotions proceed feelings, are physical, and instinctual. Because they are physical, they can be objectively measured by blood flow, brain activity, facial micro-expressions, and body language.

Feelings - are mental associations and reactions to emotions, and are subjective being influenced by personal experience, beliefs, and memories. A feeling is the mental portrayal of what is going on in your body when you have an emotion and is the byproduct of your brain perceiving and assigning meaning to the emotion. Feelings are the next thing that happens after having an emotion, involve cognitive input, usually subconscious, and cannot be measured precisely.

Feelings are sparked by emotions and coloured by the thoughts, memories, and images that have become subconsciously linked with that particular emotion for you. But it works the other way around too. For example, just thinking about something threatening can trigger an emotional fear response.

While individual emotions are temporary, the feelings they evoke may persist and grow over a lifetime. Because emotions cause subconscious feelings which in turn initiate emotions and so on, it's possible for your life to become a never-ending cycle of painful and confusing emotions which produce negative feelings which cause more negative emotions without you ever really knowing why.

That's what I think anyway. Any ideas?

 

[Saelune]

Is there a difference between eating and food? Cause I gather its the same difference here really.

You feel an emotion. You eat food.

 

[QuiteEnjoyed2016]

As far as I can tell they are used largely interchangeably to describe states of mind.

However, I'd argue while an emotion is always used be used to describe an abstract concept or the experience of it, rage, love, anger; feeling can, in some circumstances, be used to describe a more complex, prophetic, understanding of the world that is unsupported by evidence, "I have a feeling he is going to steal something"

 

[BarkBarker]

You can feel different to your actual state, I'd say emotion is what is and feeling is what you've consciously perceived.

 

[Tanis]

Emotions are what make you feel?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I feel like a dictionary would settle a good number of threads on the front page right now.

 

[Pseudonym]

Emotions are normative, feelings aren't.

If I feel pain that is not something that reason has any bearing on. You can however be unreasonably angry or sad about something. As a result, you can be expected to control your emotions but not your feelings.

 

[dscross]

I feel like a dictionary would settle a good number of threads on the front page right now.

Not really - a dictionary equates the two the things as the same thing, which I disagree with. There are lots of ill defined terms in the dictionary because of their abstract nature. That's sort of the point I was making and trying to spark some ideas about it. There are certain ways of communicating in language that are very much up for debate. I believe that this is one. And it's important because knowing the difference might, I believe, help people to develop.

I was thinking that by understanding the difference between and becoming aware of your emotions and feelings, determining which is which and their root causes, and then inserting conscious thought followed by deliberate action, you can choose how you navigate and experience the world. Being able to do this means responding or reacting which can make the difference in a calm or chaotic life.

In the gaps between emotion, feeling, and acting, we all have the power to change and direct our lives for the better. Understanding your emotions and managing your feelings with conscious thinking so they don't hijack your brain followed by conscious action can actually change your brain through neuroplasticity, the scientifically proven ability of your brain to change form and function based on repeated emotion, thought, and behaviour, and change your life.

It's just a thought, that's all.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Depends on the feeling and the emotion. For instance, various smells trigger both 'emotions' and 'feelings' due to the positioning of the amygdalae and hippocampus, and are particularly effective at triggering various neuron chains of activity. Your sense of smell is also relevant to feelings or emotions (which are nondescript when talking about them at such levels) concerning all sorts of things. Sexual arousal, long term memory store, etc...

Your 'feelings' about sugar, for instance, trigger various behavioural states and create emotional attachment to the food you're eating. For instance, you give someone one new, exciting food to eat each morning and the mental stimulation this causes wanes over time ... but foods with high sugar or salt content? Those maintain psychological stimulation much akin to a pleasure response feedback that take far longer to wane regardless of growing familiarity.

I could cook you simple low salt, low sugar scones each morning. You might not have had scones for breakfast. You'll fucking love it the first morning on their own due to the fat in the cream ... But eventually you'll get tired of them. But what is more habit causing is those pancakes dribbled with maple syrup. That is far more likely to become a habit. So is buying a bag of salt-riddled crisps at the research centre vendors like I do because I can't be arsed making breakfast.

Hence why numerous scientists are struggling with the idea as to whether we should classify artificial sweeteners in sugar substitutes for coffee and soda drinks as a harmful drug.

Largely unconsciously your taste buds respond to artificial sweeteners roughly 500 times more positively than white, processed sugar. This triggers your body and your mind to assume you have consumed ridiculous levels of carbohydrates and you adjust your behaviour to match. But given the calorie load isn't there this causes a feeding response that impels some people to consume more food or feel particularly hungry.

Increasing irritability, agitation, restlessness, dizziness, anxiety, sudden fatigue and so on.

Which is a purely biochemical cause of emotionality and 'feelings' from the subject of artificial sweeteners consumption.

People are putting up an artificial barrier between emotions and feelings that are non-descript or utterly unfound in the scientific explanations of human behaviour and neuroscience.

There is a difference between feelings and an emotion, but they inform eachother. I regularly go to watch the ballet. That informs me of witnessing (a sense) a particularly graceful dance, that provokes an emotional response otherwise not found in someone not so versed with dance.

A survival skill I was taught to use in the army durinh selection was to chew whatrver food you had slowly and as much as possible if supplies are short or the difficulty of resupply reduces access to foodstuffs. You can temporarily reduce hunger and the psychological effects of hunger, by tricking your brain into assuming you've eaten more food than you have.

As your brain monitors food consumption partly by how hard you chew and the rocking back of your jaw while eating. So small quantities, well chewed.

This has numerous behavioural benefits for soldiers who go for days without adequate sustenance, albeit highly temporary and with diminishing returns the longer such conditions continue. Including higher morale, reduced fear, and increased patience. There is also some minor support for the idea that chewing on things improve thingd like a sense of security and decrease fixation on personal suffering. It's a natural "mind-keep'r-off-erer".

 

[Lambert1]

Feelings and emotions,both words are used interchangeably. Of course they are closely related, but there is a difference.

Emotions are lower level responses occurring in the subcortical regions of the brain, the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortices, creating biochemical reactions in our body altering our physical state.They have been programmed into our genes over many, many years of evolution.They originally helped our species survive by producing quick reactions to threat, reward, and everything in between in their environments.

Feelings on the other hand play out in our heads.Feelings originate in the neocortical regions of the brain, are mental associations and reactions to emotions, and are subjective being influenced by personal experience, beliefs, and memories.Feelings are the next thing that happens after having an emotion.