AAMT: Lesson 3 - THE ANATOMY OF EMOTION, part 1

The reading assignment for this lesson is two chapters entitled "The Thought-Factor In Achievement" and "Visions and Ideals" in As a Man Thinketh. 


This is from the course manual:
It is almost as common as sunshine to hear people say, "I feel" when in fact, "I think" is more accurate.  (Do you do this?)  Just the other day, after a particularly frustrating meeting, I overheard one man say to another, "I feel that this meeting has been a waste of time."  When you stop to think about this statement, it becomes evident that there is no "it is a waste of time" feeling.   Yes, the man could have thought that thought, and the thought could have produced a feeling or an emotion, but it most likely would have been a feeling of anger or depression.

In our everyday language we tend to interchange thinking and feeling as if they were the same thing.  They are not.  Thinking is the process that goes on in the part of the brain known as the neocortex.  Feeling, or emotion, relates to physiological sensations experienced primarily in or through the internal organs and glands.

Feeling is the direct, lawful result of the specific thinking that is done.  This principle is illustrated in the analogies presented in lesson 2.  Thinking about the snake as a harmful reptile caused the heart to pound.  Thinking about the snake as a harmless toy stopped the pounding and restored a more calm, tranquil feeling.

There probably are fewer emotions than you think.  I previously old you that emotions can be classified into three types; positive, neutral, and negative.  Included in the positive type are happiness, joy, love, and a general area we might call "pleasant," or "good."  The neutral type includes calmness, peace, and tranquility.  Do not make the mistake of thinking that "indifference" or "passivity" are neutral emotions.  They are not emotions at all, but rather labels that describe cognitive (thinking) processes.

For some reason, we have more labels for negative emotions than for either positive or neutral.  These labels are fear, anger, hate, anxiety, and depression.  Some experts include guilt as a negative emotions, while others claim that guilt is a thinking process that leads to a general, negative (bad) feeling.  In any event, thinking always precedes an emotion or feeling and is its direct cause.  Remember what Epictetus said:  It's not facts and events that upset man, but the view he takes of them."  There is a lawful, logical, physiological explanation for the processes involved in producing and experiencing any given emotion.  Perhaps it will be helpful if I describe the "anatomy of an emotion."  If you stop to think about it for a moment, you will realize that you generally experience your feelings through the activity of one or more of your internal organs.  For example, you don't feel fear or anxiety in your head, but rather in your heart, stomach, and lungs.  You think and evaluate in your head and feel in your internal organs.

Frequently one internal organ is involved in registering different or even opposite emotions.  You immediately know what physical sensations mean because you automatically associate them with the specific kind of thinking you have been doing or the specific attitude or belief (previous thinking that has been stored away) that has been activated by your thinking.  For example, your heart may pound with joyous excitement or with dreaded fear.  You immediately know the difference because of the thoughts that precede or accompany the pounding.

We commonly interchange the terms emotion and feeling as if they were synonymous.  The reason for this is that we get so accustomed to the beat of our hearts or the rhythm of our breathing that we stop being aware of these functions.  When we are excited or frightened, we notice the change in that beat or rhythm and call it a feeling because it is indeed a physical feeling.  We label the emotion (feeling) according to the kind of thinking we were doing.

Perhaps I could illustrate how change draws our attention by relating an incident from several years back.  Before I began my university studies, I worked two shifts each day at an alfalfa seed re-cleaning plant to earn money for school.  During the midnight to eight a.m. shift, I was alone in a very quiet warehouse.  Having already worked one full shift earlier in the day and having done my chores at home, I was always very tired.  The cleaning mill was on the third floor of the plant.  The clean seeds feel from the mill into a metal bin on the first floor where I put them into bags.  I worked out a system in which I could fill the mill on the third floor and then run down to the first floor and sleep next to the bin for about fifteen minutes.  As long as the seeds were falling into the metal bin, I could sleep soundly, but the minute the last seed fell, the silence woke me up  I had conditioned myself to respond to the change from the gentle tinkling of the seeds to silence.  So it is with internal changes.  You get so accustomed to routines that you don't even notice what is happening.  However, when thinking activates  the change, you do notice that and call it "feeling" or "emotion."  If there is no noticeable feeling, you simply refer to your state as "calm."