Skip to main content

Thoughts, Emotions, and Feelings. who controls who?

I am not who you think I am; I am not who I think I am; I am who I think you think I am.  Charls Horton cooley

What is it about thoughts, feelings, and emotions that make us in constant  war within ourselves?

Even if  you want to make sense out of them you need to use one of them, and that by itself creates more confusion than ever before you start to decipher the complex web of the inner SELF.

How can you make sense out of something that doesn't make sense? Even more, how do you make sense?

Well, the way I see it is, if for some strange reason (only you can comprehend), anything you perceive does  makes sense to you it doesn't necessarily have to make sense to anyone else .


The relationship between thoughts, emotions, and feelings is complex and interconnected, with each influencing the others in various ways. Here’s a brief overview of how they interact and which might control which:


1. **Thoughts**: These are the cognitive processes that involve reasoning, analysis, and decision-making. Thoughts can shape emotions by interpreting or giving meaning to situations. For example, if you think, "I might fail this exam," it could trigger feelings of anxiety or fear.


2. **Emotions**: These are more automatic, physiological responses to stimuli. Emotions often arise before conscious thoughts and can influence the way you think. For instance, if you feel angry, your thoughts might become more critical or defensive.


3. **Feelings**: Feelings are the subjective experience of emotions. They are how we consciously interpret our emotions, often shaped by our thoughts. For example, the emotion of sadness might be felt as melancholy or despair, depending on how you think about it.


### Who Controls Whom?

- **Thoughts can control emotions and feelings**: Through cognitive reappraisal or positive thinking, we can change how we feel about a situation. For example, reframing a failure as a learning experience can turn disappointment into determination.

  

- **Emotions can control thoughts**: Strong emotions like anger or fear can narrow our thinking, making us focus only on certain aspects of a situation, sometimes leading to irrational decisions.

  

- **Feelings are influenced by both**: Feelings are often the result of how our thoughts and emotions interact. Changing either can alter the feelings we experience.


In practice, it's often a dynamic loop where thoughts, emotions, and feelings continuously influence each other. Developing mindfulness and emotional intelligence can help you become more aware of this interplay and gain better control over how they affect each other.



Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

FIFTY QUOTES TO LIVE BY

Energy fine tuning frequency   Sometimes we all need that little push in the right direction, or some unexpected out of the blue encounter to give us a hint about something that we needed help with. Well maybe these inspiring hand picked picturesque quotes  may just be the ones that will give you that extra needed push.                                                                             1.    Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. 2. Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. 3. It does not matter how slow you go as long you do not stop. 4. Our greatest    glory is not in never falling, but in rising   every  time we fall. 5. Eve...
Read more
 Here’s the classic moral story version people usually mean: The Crow Imitating the Pigeon’s Walk A crow once saw a pigeon walking gracefully near some houses and being fed by people. The crow thought the pigeon’s life was easy and happy. Wanting the same comfort, the crow began to imitate the pigeon’s walk. Day after day, the crow practiced walking like the pigeon. But it could not do it properly. Worse, it slowly forgot its own way of walking. When the crow finally tried to return to its old life, it couldn’t walk like a crow anymore—nor like a pigeon. Ashamed and helpless, the crow realized its mistake. Moral Do not imitate others blindly; be yourself. (Also said as: Trying to copy others makes you lose your own identity.)
Read more

Thoreau WALDEN CHAPTER V Solitude

Chapter V: Solitude This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore. I go and come with a strange liberty in Nature, a part of herself. As I walk along the stony shore of the pond in my shirt-sleeves, though it is cool as well as cloudy and windy, and I see nothing special to attract me, all the elements are unusually congenial to me. The bullfrogs trump to usher in the night, and the note of the whip-poor-will is borne on the rippling wind from over the water. Sympathy with the fluttering alder and poplar leaves almost takes away my breath; yet, like the lake, my serenity is rippled but not ruffled. These small waves raised by the evening wind are as remote from storm as the smooth reflecting surface. Though it is now dark, the wind still blows and roars in the wood, the waves still dash, and some creatures lull the rest with their notes. The repose is never complete. The wildest animals do not repose...
Read more