I think, I feel...... do we confuse the terms at times?

 

Do you have a space where you go to just think? Do you need to be alone to think? Do you need to be in nature, on the beach, in a forest, in the mountains, or in a coffee shop, library etc.?

Perhaps you go to such places to stop thinking?

Do we do enough serious thinking, do we allow for the possibility of new neural pathways to be made by thinking new thoughts?

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them", said Albert Einstein. New ideas require new thoughts, new destinations, new paths, new outcomes, new choices, and to change our old habitual behaviours, we need to find new ways to respond.

This requires thinking, so what is thinking? "Are you serious?" you may ask, "when don't we think?"

Thinking, some suggest is:

"The process of using ones mind to consider or reason about something."

"Mind", "reason" and "something" are quite vague terms and have a lot of wriggle room, but I

think (!) you get the general idea.

What about feelings? What are those?

According to neuro-scientific research, our brain generates emotional reactions which we experience in our bodies as feelings.

We feel touch through sense data, which is very different from when we feel sad, which is an emotional (feeling) response to our thinking. 

Example: You hit yourself on the thumb with the hammer, you experience physical pain, you feel hurt. (Sense data)

Your best friend fail to return your calls, you experience emotional pain, you feel hurt. (An emotional response to your thoughts about it)

You think you have been shortchanged, you worry, you can't sleep; your emotional response may result in a migraine (sense data) and feeling emotionally hurt.

A quick guide to identifying whether we are thinking or feeling when asked a question may be how many words we use. "I'm real mad, I feel very upset, I'm confused", etc. visa vie "I feel they should do more research before they......, I feel nobody really understands the situation, now this is how I see it...."  Although the word "feel" is used, in this case it is more to do with our thinking/believing about the subject, rather than our feelings. The opposite also occurs: "What do you think about these figures?, What are your thoughts on the book/film/art show?etc."

"I'm mad about the figures", I hated the book/film/art show, etc.".

(Some feeling words: understanding, playful, peaceful, confident, lucky, energetic, sad, lonely, down, upset, free, calm, angry,etc.etc) To respond to a question about our feelings on a subject, we need very few words: "I feel........" , but to answer what we think, requires a lot more.

                 “Well, can’t I just say that the ………………is wrong?” Of course, but the person you are speaking with will probably ask you to explain your reasoning. Thinking is the activity of human reason as a process of strengthening the relationship between stimulus and response, a mental process involving transformation of information using logic, imagination and problem-solving.  When we say we feel something, it is a subjective experience, it’s about how an event is perceived and how we view the perceived event, but if we say we think something, then often rules of logic and reason are presumed. No one is likely to tell us we are wrong if we say we feel tired, but if we say we think that global warming is a "tired" subject, we may very well be asked to explain our reasoning for making such a claim.

“Five percent of the people think;

ten percent of the people think they think;
and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.”  (Thomas A. Edison)

“The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.”

(Horace Walpole)

“People don’t like to think, if one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.”  (Helen Keller)

“You may believe that you are responsible for what you do, but not for what you think. The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think. ” (Marianne Williamson)

 

Do we find it easier to own our thoughts than our feelings? Do we find it easier to go with our "gut" feelings rather than unravel our thoughts and perceptions behind those feelings?

Feeling without understanding, or thinking without understanding feelings, neither a good option in my view.

Understanding how we think and feel, perhaps is the optimal destination.

Confused?

 

I think I know how you feel...........