Feelings – what are they? They are part of our existence; sensations we experience both emotionally and physically. The English language uses the same word, ‘feel’, to explain a physical and an emotional sensation. Some feelings are pleasant, some are unpleasant, but they are all informative. When you ‘feel’ a sensation, check in with yourself and ask: “is this physical, emotional or both?” Check where it is, where you feel it, and give it, or them, a name.
Let’s look at anxiety as an example. Most people ‘feel’ anxiety both emotionally and physically but describe that they ‘feel’ anxious. However, what we feel when we feel anxious is emotionally frightened (even if we don’t know why) accompanied by a host of physical feelings, such as an increased heartrate (heart palpitations), sweating, increased and shallow breathing, shaking, etc. The emotional underpinning of anxiety is the emotional feeling of fear, which triggers all of the physiological responses mentioned, which we call anxiety. So, feelings are both emotional and physical. Check into both and don’t be afraid to feel. Feelings are very informative for us. We are meant to feel.