Feel
_I: Emotion and Feeling are different things… Right?
_AM: An emotion is an energetic reaction caused by an electrical impulse through the discharge of vibration on our body. And a Feeling is a constant emotional state, that is, an emotion that has become part of your interpretation system. Thus, joy can be interpreted as an emotion since it is a reaction to something that has happened, and happiness is a feeling, since it is a state of life that allows you to see the world from a certain fullness.
_I: So Feeling is something that defines my inner world more than the emotions themselves…
_AM: Exactly. Feelings are states that have been integrated into you due to the constant repetition of an emotion. The assimilation of joy in many circumstances of your life is assimilated as Happiness, which will become the filter of your perception of the world. For this reason, a life full of fear will make you a person wrapped in the feeling of fear. A life with emotions of betrayal will make a person resentful. And these feelings will begin to define the way you receive and give, how you assimilate, open and surrender to the world. Feelings become part of your evolutionary mechanism, like another tool of your nature. Just as your hands evolved from the need to grab things to create objects, or your photosensitive cells evolved into eyes to be able to capture the world around you, your emotions evolved into feelings to filter reality.
_I: So, while emotions are reactions to external stimuli, feelings are responses to internal perceptions. That is, my personality is definable by my feelings and how they are expressed in the world.
_AM: Are you happy, loving, caring, patient, sensitive, melancholic, resentful, hateful, insecure? All the sentimental attributes that others observe in us and that we recognize in our personality when dealing with others, are those emotions that became flesh in our lives. Could you identify them?
_I: Well… Obviously in this case I would need another person's vision to know what they feel about me.
_AM: Oh no, precisely to identify it, to be aware, we must recognize it ourselves. It is essential that oneself be able to identify those feelings that act as a filter for the world, which we project. By recognizing what they are, we can understand how we have been formed by emotional circumstances that have led us to create these feelings. Most of the time, we overlook this fact, the awareness that everything we feel about the world is not even an idea or belief, but rather a sentimental filter in the face of a constant reaction of similar emotions that have built our perception.
_I: What happens when sometimes the world sees us as happy and balanced people, but inside we are melancholic and conflicted?
_AM: As we talked about yesterday, this relates to the immune system. He himself seeks to imitate others who see strength to survive in a hostile environment. Just as certain insects are dyed red and black, imitating poisonous animals. Or certain snakes that have managed to make their skin look like the designs of one of the most venomous snakes in the world, such as the Coral and the False Coral. They do it to protect themselves. Many great comedians suffer from depression, but laughter protects them because they consider that showing their sadness is a weakness that will lead to their fall, and even death. For this reason, there are two points of view of the feelings that cover us or emerge from us: those that define us from the outside and that others see about us, and those that only we know inside ourselves.
_I: So to know what emotional tools I have, I must identify both…
_AM: That's right. For this reason, today you must make your Feeling list. The question you will ask yourself is “What feelings define my identity?” And you will make two columns: those that others perceive in you, and those that are properly within you.
_I: And… Those layers that I have created to survive… Should I eliminate them?
_AM: No, they are part of you. What you must learn is to use them sincerely. Recognizing what you are, sharing all your parts. Sincerity is more rewarded than success in a world of falsehoods and distortions. Be true to yourself, and you can be true to the world, using what was once a weakness this time as a strength, and what you considered a shield now use it as a simple tool.
_I: Recognizing my feelings is beginning to be honest with who I am.
_AM: And when you do, you will begin to understand how you feel about the world, making you free from what you believe, to be.