Posted by littleone on January 26, 2005, at 20:23:14
The other day, I was telling my T how I don't know what I'm feeling at any given time. I have a list of feeling words and sometimes I'll run down it and I simply cannot tell what's inside me.
I was then saying that I realised that the only way I do know is to look at what I'm thinking, eg if I think "why hasn't she called me, doesn't she like me" I know I'm probably feeling hurt or rejected or confused.
My T then talked about how this was perfectly normal. How feelings are simply thoughts + physiology (ie your heart rate, body temperature, breathing rate, muscle tension, etc).
Now I perfectly agree with the idea that you think something and that leads to your feelings which leads to a change in your physiology. But I don't think I believe that feelings are *just* thoughts + physiology. There's more to it than that but I can't put my finger on what is missing there.
How would you define a feeling? How exactly do you *feel* a feeling? Is it simply a change in physiology or something more? Maybe some sort of sensation inside your head?
poster:littleone
thread:448365
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050122/msgs/448365.html