The emotional experience. beyond feeling

Feeling vs. Emotion

We often use the words "feeling" and "emotion" interchangeably, but upon closer inspection, there's an important distinction.

A feeling can be a simple physical sensation, like a headache or the warmth of the sun on your skin.

It's a passive, poorly articulated experience.

An emotion, on the other hand, is much more complex.

Emotion as Judgment

An emotion isn't just a feeling; it's a judgment about our relationship to the world.

When we feel anger, we're not just experiencing a host of physiological sensations (heat, tension); we are also making a judgment: "an injustice has been committed against me."

When we feel joy, we are judging that something good has happened.

Emotions are, in essence, ways of interpreting and making sense of our reality.

Emotion as Engagement with the World

Emotions are not purely internal events; are our way of engaging with the world.

Sadness engages us with a loss, fear with a threat, love with another person.

Each emotion positions us in a particular way vis-à-vis reality and prepares us for a certain type of action.

They are not things we "have," but things we "do."

The Cycle of Emotional Reinforcement

Emotional experience is a dynamic cycle.

An external stimulus can provoke physiological sensations (William James's th