EMOTIONS, FEELINGS AND MOODS Part 1

ARE THEY ALL THE SAME THING?

WHY DO WE HAVE THEM?

HOW DO THEY AFFECT OUR THOUGHTS AND DECISIONS?

“My life is mainly concerned with facts, not feelings” – Paul Dirac (the greatest physicist of the last century).

As we all know, our brain is the most complex, mysterious and sophisticated organ there is. It weighs around 1.3 kg and is composed of 86 billion special nerve cells called neurons. Every single one of these cells works, as far as I am concerned as “nano-computers.” In a sense, I think that our brain is composed of an unimaginable 86 billion interconnected biological nano-computers.

Among the many functions of our brain, one of the most essential functions is to create the mind and our consciousness. We do not know exactly how the mind is created. What is unconscious state of the mind?  Many more questions come to mind, such as:

·       Are psychology, emotions and feelings are created by the mind or the brain?

·       Does our brain and mind always work together in harmony, or do they sometimes contradict each other?

·       If logical thinking and reasoning is all that is needed, as we were told during our many years of training, why then do we have emotions and feelings that interfere with our thinking and decision making?

When I was struggling with all these questions I came across a very important book, which is written by a theoretical physicist and academician Leonard Mlodinow entitled Emotional, How Feeling Shape Our Thinking. I found answers to many of my questions in this interesting book. This book is written with easy to understand language, while avoiding scientific jargon and academic controversies. It also contains many real-life examples as well as current neuro-psychiatric research findings. While I read this book with great pleasure, it raised many more questions in my mind:

·       Are emotions and feelings the same thing?

·       Are they the product of mind or the brain?

·       Are we always consciously aware of them?

·       Which one comes first and creates the other?

Dictionary definitions of these terms are not very clear either unfortunately. The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes emotion as, “strong generalized feeling, psychical excitement; feelings as expressive of great sensibility and mood as particular state of the mind.”

Even though I am not a neuropsychiatrist, I have my own opinions about these terms and issues. To me, emotions and feelings are different from each other, but they are related. When we sense an emotional stimuli in our outside world with our senses, it automatically triggers an emotional response in our subconscious mind; although we may not even be aware of it. Therefore, emotions come first. Each emotion causes different modes of thinking, feelings and behaviors. We are consciously and bodily aware of our feelings, therefore feelings are the product of the conscious mind and brain.

Emotions and feelings do not last long. But for certain conditions, the emotional state of mind could continue for a long time as seen in a grief reaction. This long-lasting emotional state of mind is called mood.