Are Feelings Facts?

Are feelings facts? Feelings are the most obvious causal agent for motivating ourselves, towards achieving a goal.

Feelings provide us with energy for action and reaction and they are a very important part of our lives, that inspire us, make us or even break us.

So before we move ahead, we need to understand that these are basically responses by the brain that are not true always.

1. What are Feelings?

Intense emotional responses sent by our brain by taking the outside perspective which we receive the whole day, every day are called feelings.

They help us in our decision-making process so that we make informed decisions based on the messages we receive.

They help us to get clarity of what is it that we want and how to get that, and the same is valid for other people.

So, unlike usual messenger logic, feelings do not linger if you do not want them to, their primary function is to deliver the message and they can do that and move ahead.

But if you give them space and time to stay they will stay, in that case after listening to the message that has been conveyed by them we can analyze what is it that we want to do with that information.

What we need to remember is that our feelings do not describe us, they are not who we are; so when you say you are sad and you are feeling sad; these are two different concepts altogether.

If you think you are sad that means you are not letting go of the ‘feeling of sad’ and letting it define you.

Contrarily, when you feel sad it’s just a feeling or a small phase that goes away as soon as you push it off, thus not becoming a part of your personality.

2. How are Emotions Generated?

We have a fair understanding that emotions can arise from a plethora of things or activities or circumstances.

For example, you might have an emotional response to what is currently happening or what happened in the past (when you think about it again), even when you are thinking of the future.

Emotions can also rise out of interpretations or misunderstandings, they can even rise out of our fantasies, dreams, and beliefs and there is no capping to these examples because it is something that happens all day, every day.

We get tons of feeling bad and good, what we have to do is make quick decisions as to which of the feelings are real, genuine, and necessary and which are just our imagination.

Emotions are basically the chemical reactions of our brain, and the time of the release of these chemicals from the hypothalamus where they are produced and the final site of burst is surprisingly very small just about 6 seconds.

Implying that any emotion that you feel for more than six seconds, be it happy or sad or angry is because you have held on to that emotion. You have recreated it and thus it gets accentuated.

This is where emotional intelligence comes into play. Emotional intelligence is the power or the ability to understand how important a feeling is at that moment concerning your circumstance and based on that understanding quickly decide to hold onto it or let it go.

So, if in case you encounter a tiger and you feel scared then you need to hold onto that feeling so that you feel scared continuously and your brain actions your body to protect you.

But, if you broke a plate made of glass, you can not fix it so stressing over it does not help which means in this case you should let that feeling go.

3. Are Feelings Facts?

If something feels good, it does not mean that it is good. If something feels bad, does not mean that it is definitely bad and if something feels scary it does not mean that it is dangerous.

Just because you feel something does not make it a reality; so, if you’re feeling low and you’re trying to overcome a problem you will not go at it with full preparation because you will feel that there is no point in this, you will not succeed.

So, in such a case do not go by your feeling, do not believe in your gut, because as stated above feelings are not the truth always.

So, in place of that learn how to distinguish a feeling from a fact. When you are in a situation try to look at it factually, rather than how you are feeling about it emotionally.

Do not get driven by your feelings instead try to understand from where are those feelings arising and then think over the facts that come out of this analysis.

Do they match your emotional response to the situation? Is it genuinely very risky or you are just amped up by your emotions?

Emotional reasoning is another aspect that we need to consider in this discussion. If someone operates using emotional reasoning they might get into a lot of trouble because feeling might supersede logic.

For example, somebody who is feeling fat might not eat nicely because of what they feel and put their health in danger.

Usually, emotional reasoning has been observed to have more negative impact than positive, with consequences turning out like depressive behaviors and the rise of negative feelings.

4. Final Thoughts

Feelings are not facts they are just signposts, they can alert us to certain events or help us with information to come to conclusions.

They are not the guiding force, however, and we are not at all under their mercy. They are not true always, indeed sometimes they can even be deceiving.

So, if you ever feel something that does not add up in your life then figure it out, don’t ignore it, don’t push it off rather think it through.

Understand their origin, understand the truth, and always hold the possibility that your feelings might not be correct.