14. What does it actually *mean* to say that someone is angry but doesn't realise it? If anger is an emotion and emotions are descriptions of one's own internal feelings, if they don't have access to those feelings are they "really" angry? (I think "yes but it's complicated")
-
Show this thread
-
15. "Feelings" is another multiple meaning word. Both "I am experiencing a feeling of hopelessness" and "My heart is racing" describe feelings, but they're quite different sorts of feelings. OTOH there's a more or less continuous gradient between those two kinds of feeling.
1 reply 0 retweets 5 likesShow this thread -
16. I don't necessarily want to commit to this but I think it might be useful to use "sensations" as a distinguishing word for feeling. e.g. "My heart is racing" is a sensation which might lead to the feeling "I need to escape", which you could describe as "being anxious".
2 replies 0 retweets 6 likesShow this thread -
17. There isn't necessarily a hard and fast line as to what is a sensation, what is a feeling, and what is an emotion. There's continuity between all three. It's more of a question of which aspect of the experience you're focusing (or Focusing!) on.
1 reply 0 retweets 7 likesShow this thread -
18. I think people often think that the sensations you experience are side effects of the emotion. The causality actually goes: 1. My heart is racing. 2. Therefore I feel like I need to escape. 3. Therefore I feel anxious. But people assume it's the opposite.
1 reply 0 retweets 10 likesShow this thread -
19. This realisation that emotions are fundamentally embodied seems to be missing from popular conceptions of emotions. It's a normal concept in therapeutic contexts, but outside those circles people tend to think emotions are in their head and just happen to affect their body.
1 reply 1 retweet 13 likesShow this thread -
20. None of which is to say that your brain isn't involved in your emotions - of course it is - but there's a complex brain/body feedback loop. Brain: Uh oh. This looks like bad thing. Better prepare. Body: *enters flight or fight mode* <- sensation that starts the emotion loop.
1 reply 0 retweets 9 likesShow this thread -
21. Circling back to regulation vs suppression: I think a lot of where everybody gets fucked up is that kids have a lot of feelings (the world is pretty overwhelming when everything is new!) and it's much easier to teach them to suppress those than to regulate them.
2 replies 0 retweets 12 likesShow this thread -
22. My impression is that which version of the bad lessons in what to do about emotions you get depends on which gender you're assigned (and also culture). In broad strokes, boys get taught to ignore their emotions, while girls get taught to second guess theirs. Both are bad.
1 reply 0 retweets 21 likesShow this thread -
23. The difference being whether you are aware of your emotional experience or not - not noticing you feel X vs noticing that you feel X and deciding that that's stupid and you shouldn't feel X. I think the former is worse for you, but that might be a grass is greener thing.
2 replies 0 retweets 9 likesShow this thread
Might be emotion-dependent as well? E.g. I have trouble noticing anger. That's probably gendered
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.