Feelings and emotions. Aren’t those interchangeable? I think for the sake of labels, I’d agree with that. We certainly use those terms interchangeably when we’re having conversations or telling a story. I wanted to write a bit more about breaking down feelings versus emotions since this month’s topic is all about how music relates to and affects both of these.
When I think about feelings versus emotions, I really think about three main differences. Are they automatic or reason based, the speed at which they appear and change, and the intensity level.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes you have a mood that arises in you with no thoughts about it first; it’s just there. That is an emotion. We feel something without having to consciously decide to. I would describe myself as a joyful person. I don’t wake up and decide t0 be that way, and it isn’t because of a thought I sit down to think. I just am. I’m sure you can think of other examples or situations that give you those automatic experiences. Emotions are rooted in the limbic system of our brains; that’s the most primitive part. They are limited. There are only so many different emotions you naturally find yourself experiencing.
A feeling on the other hand, results from abstract thinking about something that happens to us. I feel happy when I order my Jimmy John’s sub and it arrives with the perfect layer of mayo and at my doorstep in less than 10 minutes. That isn’t the emotion of joy, it’s the feeling of happiness because I get to eat my delicious sandwich sooner. My brain thought about it and decided it makes me happy because I was really hungry and I also appreciate when people are punctual. Feelings are interpretations of events. When you think about them in that sense, the number of feelings we can have is unlimited. Pretty neat. Feelings are, in a sense, interpretations of our base emotions. If feelings and emotions are all wrapped up into our autonomic nervous system, emotions would be part of our sympathetic nervous system; fight or flight, while feelings would be part of our parasympathetic nervous system; restoring us to a state of calm through thought and reason.
The second difference between emotions and feelings then is the speed at which they appear. If emotions are unconscious, part of the sympathetic nervous system, it makes sense that they would be quick and intense. Emotions are like an alarm system for your body. The easiest example is fear. If we were to see a giant shark swimming toward us, we would feel a very real emotion of fear. That fear would be our brain saying “Swim Away” like the cloud of krill trying to escape the mouth of the whale in that scene in Finding Nemo. Fear is the alarm bell telling you to take action, or to stop whatever action you are doing.
Feelings develop little by little. Feelings are remnants of our emotions and they develop from thinking about the emotions we experience and evaluating them. Thinking about how you reacted and why. Once you take time to reflect in this way, you’re experiencing a feeling and no longer an emotion.
The intensity level is another way to separate emotions from feelings as emotions are usually much more intense. They are an alarm! Have you ever heard a fire alarm that wasn’t intense? Intensity levels do vary person to person, but there are universal emotions all humans can experience. They are joy, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, and sadness. Yes, I did have to think about the Pixar movie, “Inside Out” to remember all of them. Spoiler; they left out surprise, but I still think it’s an adorable movie. Regardless, the core human emotions actually came from research done in the 70’s. They also came up with a term called “universal human signaling” resulting from the time they spent studying facial expressions and sounds. A universal human signal for disgust for example, is the sound “Yuck!”.
At the end of the day, this discussion can feel like splitting hairs, but I think it’s important when you start investigating how to shift your mood. Realizing that an emotion is different from a feeling can help you set realistic goals when it comes to adjusting your mood. Using music can be an awesome way to shift our feelings to a more positive space. Creating mood shift playlists is one way I like to work on this. The idea is to first choose a feeling you would be experiencing when you use this exercise. Think, anxious or irritated. Next, choose a goal feeling you’d ideally like to shift toward by the end of the exercise. Once you decide on your feelings, then choose your music. I always say go for at least three songs; one that first reflects the starting feeling, the next one starts to transition, and the last song reflects the goal feeling. The point being that you then use this playlist as a tool and listen to it all the way through to help create a space to begin shifting your negative feeling in a more positive direction. Pretty cool huh! You could make this playlist longer if you wanted, but go try it out. It might be just what you needed to feel better.
Comments