The Important Difference Between Feelings And Emotions

Christyl Rivers, Phd.
2 min readFeb 4, 2023

Think of your feelings as mental stories about sensations

Photo by tabitha turner on Unsplash

Roaring Rivers

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We are emotional creatures

Perhaps it’s just a pet peeve of my own.

I don’t laugh when I read someone describing feelings as emotions, or vice versa. I don’t cry, either. But, I find it particularly distracting and annoying.

It does not help that people use the terms interchangeably. It does not help that when a child has a physical sensation — such as — to being bullied, or in some way offended, we teach them “He/she hurt your feelings, huh?”

No doubt a child will form some thoughts about some sensations, but one of the strengths of children is being able to let go of forming feelings.

An emotion is physical.

A tightness in the chest, a galvanic skin response, a shudder, a tight throat, a stomach contraction, watery eyes, etc. — -basically anything physical displays an emotion.

Maybe think of it as your body’s cells in motion.

Feelings are in your mind

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Christyl Rivers, Phd.

Ecopsychologist, Writer, Farmer, Defender of reality, and Cat Castle Custodian.