ALL THE FEELINGS

What am I feeling?

Feelings are a human response to emotions. The response depends on your prior life experiences and personality. Today try to chose how you’d like to feel, don’t let auto-pilot drive your life and your feelings. Let happiness be your outcome.

In psychology, a feeling can be defined as a person’s response to the emotion that comes from the perception of a situation. A fundamental difference between feelings and emotions is that feelings are experienced consciously, while emotions manifest either consciously or subconsciously.

The feelings you experience, positive or negative, are there for a reason. Fear and anxiety may alert you to potential threats and help you respond accordingly. On the other hand, there are feelings that allow you to have meaningful social interactions and create emotional connections, like empathy, compassion, and understanding. The bottom line is that what you feel can help enrich your life. Negative emotions can be a burden, but the positive experiences of our lives would be less meaningful without anything to compare them to.

Never suppress your feelings though. For instance if you’re grieving – hold space for the grief. You’ll know when it’s time to come out of it and then decide that you would like to feel differently.

“The feelings you experience, positive or negative, are there for a reason.”

“Situations cannot create feelings – only your thoughts about the situation can.”

-Sophie Harriet

Lessons learned in therapy

by Sophie Harriet via This Brilliant Day

Situations cannot create feelings – only your thoughts about the situation can.
Notice unhelpful thoughts. Replace them with helpful thoughts.
Take note of which behaviors make you feel better or worse.
Turn your focus to the task or environment.
Avoidance makes anxiety worse.
Act the want you want to be, no matter how you feel.
Let go of expectations.

I came across this post on Pinterest and love the core concepts she draws out and it serves as a great reminder for how we can handle tough situations. Please visit the full blog post to learn more about it.

“We can feel emotions that contradict each other at the same time.”

-Sara Kuburic, MA, CCC

About emotions

by Sara Kuburic, MA, CCC via @millennial.therapist on instagram

We can feel more than one emotion at once
We can feel emotions that contradict each other at the same time
Emotions reflect our experience (but they don’t always accurately represent the situation)
Emotions are worth validating (regardless if they are ‘positive’ or ‘negative’)

This is such a great account to follow on instagram, constant reminders and helpful words to live by. I’ve screenshot more of her posts than I can count and always go back to read them.