“Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.” - Elizabeth Gilbert

A human can’t be “human” enough if the word “feeling” or “emotion” is not a part of his being. The ability to feel is inherently a vital part of human existence and the human experience. From what we see, to what we touch; from what we hear, to what we smell, everything generates an emotional response, or a “feeling” within us. The feelings and emotions, all contribute to our understanding of things, all kinds of beings, people, and most importantly, ourselves. It is the way we see, feel and as a result process things that sets us apart from, but also makes us a part of everything around us. This article seeks to briefly explore what feelings and emotions are, and what they subjectively define, based on individual perceptions, including personal ones. It aims to dive into what it means to “feel”, and what we feel about feeling itself.

What is “Feeling”? What is “Emotion”? Aren’t they the Same? Or Not?

Feeling

• noun: feeling; plural noun: feelings
  an emotional state or reaction.
  "a feeling of joy"

• adjective: feeling
  showing emotion or sensitivity.
  "She was a feeling child"

• verb: gerund or present participle: feeling
  - be aware of (a person or object) through touching or being touched.
  "she felt someone touch her shoulder"
  - experience (an emotion or sensation).
  "I felt a sense of excitement"

Emotion

• noun: emotion; plural noun: emotions
  a strong feeling deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with others.
  "she was attempting to control her emotions"

This is what you’ll probably find when you Google both these terms and these are probably the most obvious definitions that are most widely accepted, consciously or unconsciously. The two are similar-sounding concepts and are often used interchangeably. They are deeply intertwined but whether they are the same or not, is a deeply puzzling question. Researchers have debated whether the two are synonymous or not, over a great period, and even now, the terms are greatly embedded in each other, so clearly drawing the line between the two is quite a problem. However, there is more or less a common consensus which describes the subtle but important differences between the two.

According to the American Psychology Association, "an emotion is a complex psychological state that involves three distinct components: a subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioral or expressive response", and similarly, Britannica defines “emotion” as a complex experience of consciousness, bodily sensation, and behavior that reflects the personal significance of a thing, an event, or a state of affairs.

Emotions are indeed complex and are more often defined as something within a psychological existence, but processed physiologically, as a cognitive response to a particular stimulus or situation. Feelings, on the other hand, are manifestations of those embedded emotions, physical and mental ones, that arise from our experience of emotions, that are inherently a part of us. Feelings are the conscious essence of emotions. To put it simply, emotions are the foundation on which feelings are expressed.

The Biology of Feeling

Feelings and Emotions are both processed in a rather complex way, in both the brain and the body, but the biology of how one works could potentially shed light on how the other is generated. Since feelings are the primary output, getting to know how emotions arise and are processed is the beginning of this exploration.

External stimulation plays a key role in this process, as the stimuli are the ones that initiate the entire process. The stimuli are detected and responded to, through the amygdala, a small almond-shaped structure located in the brain's temporal lobe, which is responsible for processing the information about the emotional significance of the sensory input. We receive an external stimulus or a sensory input, for instance, a threatening situation or a very happy one; it is detected by the amygdala, processed, and then an output befitting the situation is received or more appropriately "felt" after the amygdala sends signals to the brain and the body, to prepare for it.

These signals could be anything, ranging from an increase in heartbeat, and dilation of our pupils, to the release of hormones like adrenaline or cortisol, etc. This is how an emotional response is generated in our body.

Feelings, on the other hand, are in a way, the direct output, or the subjective physical and mental response generated owing to this process. For instance, in the case of a happy situation, one might feel joy or excitement, and in the case of a threatening one, one might feel anxious or scared.

This output, or the final "feeling" could greatly vary based on several factors, including genetic, cultural, and social influences. Past experiences, mental notions, and personal beliefs also have a great impact on this very output.

Measuring "Feeling"

Emotions, and how they're felt is a completely subjective experience, therefore measuring them isn't an easy task. Moreover, when things are about "feeling", there is no certain parameter that can determine the intensity of a feeling or an emotion. However, several researchers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and scientists. have developed several methods to study and potentially measure emotional responses, feelings, etc. both subjectively and objectively.

Subjective judgment usually involves self-report questionnaires, interviews, etc. which enable individuals to answer based on their assessment of their feelings and thoughts. Such questionnaires often use scales of agreement, like the Likert scale where an individual is supposed to answer within a range of 1-10, or a range of descriptive words, like "agree", "agree slightly", "disagree", and so on, to describe what the individual feels about a certain thing, situation or circumstance. These are often used in clinical and therapeutic settings.

To get an objective idea, physiological responses such as heart rate variability, electroencephalography (EEG), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)are observed and noted to capture the biological aspect of emotional responses. These are usually taken in laboratory settings, are considered reliable indicators of emotional responses, and often validate the self-report measures.

Behavioral methods are another way to go about the measurements. In this, researchers often take into account facial expressions and body language to analyze emotional responses. However, this is often not considered very credible because it can be subjectively prone to interpretational biases.

All these methods vary in terms of their credibility and reliability, and can also depend on linguistic and cultural influences. Overall, measuring emotions or feelings is a complicated task, and combining these methodologies can provide a glimpse into how these processes work.

But these methods are not sure shot and have their limitations. Firstly, social and cultural influences greatly affect an individual's perceptions and hence their feelings and emotional responses, which makes it difficult to come up with a general idea for measuring them. Secondly, feelings and emotions are very dynamic, and change over some time, making it difficult to keep track of their measurement, as what an individual feels at one point, will probably not be the same after a certain period.

Thirdly, self-report questionnaires may not be able to capture the essence of how complex emotional processes can be, and the physiological tests could also be deceptive when there's a possibility of an individual taking in other stimuli from the surroundings. Finally, and most importantly, a response bias or social desirability bias is often observed when individuals take the self-assessment tests, owing to which they try to give a response that they think is appropriate instead of what they feel.

The Subjective Experience of Feeling

Google defines “subjective” as something that is based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions. The subjective experience of feeling can be easily understood along these lines. A feeling cannot be fully explained, measured, or defined, but it can be “felt” or understood by the individual experiencing it. We can only try to sympathize and understand what a person feels, but decoding feelings is not possible for someone outside the body going through it. There are of course many commonalities in how people feel emotions like joy, sadness, fear, or excitement, but how a person feels is based on what they’ve gone through in their lives owing to social, cultural, and other factors, as mentioned previously.

When we talk about the subjectivity of the experience of a feeling, we talk about how we, as individuals consciously experience and perceive our thoughts, sensations, and feelings. Our interpretations, judgments, prejudices, etc. affect all this, which means that every person going through the same thing may accept, reject, and feel it differently. For instance, a musical piece may be incredibly moving for someone, but might not affect another individual at all.

One’s awareness of one’s feelings can also relate to this subjectivity. Someone more aware of how they’re feeling in a given situation and is more conscious of their perceptions in that situation may be able to have a better emotional experience in terms of handling the situation. Someone who is more distracted and dissociated from their feelings on the other hand might not be able to do the same. The two may experience the same set of feelings very differently. Cultivating awareness and developing tools for the same could greatly help navigate the subjective experiences of feeling.

The Philosophy of Feeling

While psychologists, researchers, and scientists have done great studies and provided great insights on the topics of emotion and feeling, these two terms have been more comfortably used in philosophical contexts. Several theories related to these topics have been formulated by many philosophers where an attempt to explore the nature of feelings and their essence has been repeatedly made.

One such theory is the somatic theory, which suggests that emotions are nothing more than bodily sensations. This belief suggests that subjective experience of feeling arises from the physical changes a situation results in. Another theory, the cognitive theory suggests that emotions and how they are felt are a result of our thoughts and interpretations of events. Feelings here leave the bodily mold and become a conscious thing that shapes our emotional experiences. Another theory takes the social and cultural factors into account and highlights the need to consider broader societal factors when studying emotions.

Some important philosophers who have contributed to these ideas are:

Aristotle who theorized that emotions are neither good nor bad but could be virtuous or vicious depending on how they are expressed, and these emotions arise from our perceptions of the world.

Rene Descartes believed that emotions were automatic responses to what happens around us and said they were primarily bodily sensations

William James or the father of American Psychology believed emotions were a result of physiological changes in the body. He argued that the feeling of emotion is the awareness of the physiological changes that one experiences.

In conclusion, feelings and emotions are subjective, and putting them in a box is not possible. They are an integral part of what makes us human. They may be complex and not understandable easily, and have a complicated underlying biology, but there are several ways to perceive, inspect and express them, and all these certainly depend on an individual's own experiences. In essence, they are responsible for how we accept and view the world and are in turn accepted by it, they determine how we understand and influence our world, and interact with it.

.    .    .