Feeling and feelings
To me the gerund feeling, represents a wholly different world of experience from the noun, ‘feelings’.
‘Feelings’ arise with emotional energy. Some bring strong signals: some weak. They come from a nearly unconscious reaction to something going on around you. They are quick as lightning. They are so basic that the first emotional response is a fast reaction habit.
- Positive or negative.
- For or against.
- Yes or No.
Sometimes people go from feelings to action impelled by the urgency of their emotional energy with very little consciousness in between.
Dangerous - sometimes.
Delightful - sometimes.
When thinking takes a look at feelings it is ‘feeling’ the feelings.
When you are in the mode of considering and identifying what your emotional or physical feelings are, you are then raising them to a consciousness of ‘feeling’. Feeling aims to name the feelings. You are questioning yourself about them, “What am I feeling?”.
This is thoughtful, and hopefully, penetrating thinking.
Here at the Centre for Effective Intelligence we have a vocabulary of thinking where ‘feeling’ (the verb) is named as the thinking operation of ‘interpreting’. When you are reflecting on your feelings and deciphering just what they might imply, you are trying to ‘interpret’ what guidance they can give you in understanding your own reactions to what is going on around you.
Sometimes it is wise to postpone reflection till later, in calmer waters, when you can think with less of the force of an immediate emotion. Sometimes it takes a bit of time to be able to put a finger on just what your feelings are telling you.
WIth your thinking you can look at feelings and give a name to them: “Ah!” you say to yourself, “I feel angry… surprised… upset… joyful… glad… puzzled… etc…” As soon as you say “I feel…” you have lifted some rather unconscious feelings out from the raw energy of their emotional power into the realm of conscious thinking where you can better handle them.
