[ohcharles]

How do you explain exactly how you are feeling? How do you even talk about what your feeling?

[seekingserenity]

This is a fun question. Thank you for starting an interesting conversation ohcharles.

Thinking and feeling are almost the same thing to me. The words are useful descriptors. Culture is carried in the language and language is used to describe and categorize concrete things as well as abstract ideas. I don't know of a way to touch a thought or a feeling but I know them when I think or feel them. Emotion and thought are so intertwined it is challenging for me to describe the two as being separate. If I have a feeling there is an underlying thought and often a precipitating event. There is logic and reason as well as biology and personal experience that causes us to think and feel a certain way.

For example: I like dogs. Dogs have been domesticated to behave in ways that perform useful functions for people, including being companion animals. The dogs I have come into contact with have been reasonably tame and friendly. If I see a dog then I may consider or want to pet that dog because I have had good experiences in the past with doing so. Playing with, petting, and engaging in the care of dogs are things that I find pleasurable and are even sources of joy. There is both thought and feeling associated with my relationship to dogs. And imagine, if any of the above example was different, how the resulting thoughts and feelings would change as well.

This was engaging for me. I hope you respond ohcharles and also that others join in the discussion. Having feelings and being able to discuss them is a thoughtful process lol.