Human beings are naturally emotive creatures. We often talk about how we are feeling. Over the course of our lifetimes we will experience millions of different sensations. Even over the course of a day we will not be untouched by feelings and emotions. Often, these two terms are used interchangeably, but there are differences between feelings and emotions that, if known, can help us to understand what’s going on inside a little better.
Feeling – has upwards of twenty different meanings, depending on which dictionary you consult. For our purposes, feeling can either refer to something experience as a result of outside stimuli reacting with one of your five senses or someone’s sensibilities, attitude, or emotional perception.
Emotion ‘“ is technically a state of consciousness in which various internal sensations are experienced. Emotion can be produced by a thought, memory, or external motivator and can often change our physical state.
Because of this, you could say that the biggest difference between feelings and emotions is that feelings have to be triggered by an external motivating factor whereas emotions can be completely internalized.
Examples of Feelings and Emotions
Feeling ‘“
can come from the outside world reacting with any of our five senses: warmth, cold, hot, dry, dusty, drenched
can come from a physical sensation ‘“ hungry, thirsty, hurt, ticklish, itchy, tingly
can come from the result of an emotion ‘“ sad, happy, excited, nervous, disgusted, scared, overjoyed
