Comments on: Is it a Feeling or is it an Emotion? Revisited!

By: Sue

Sue — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 00:02:01 +0000

The Language of Emotions has been so helpful for me in learning how to face my anger and know what to deal with it.

I had a breakthrough the other day. I wrote about it here (and thanked you too – http://discombobula.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/anger-is-not-enemy.html.

By: Emotions | Tidbits of My Mind

Emotions | Tidbits of My Mind — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 02:34:16 +0000

[...] Here is a bit of a post I read today, Is it a Feeling or is it an Emotion? Revisited! [...]

By: Aprilflower

Aprilflower — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 07:01:39 +0000

Thanks. Your books and posts give a much needed extra perspective to other books I’ve been reading.

By: Karla

Karla — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 06:34:42 +0000

Hello! There are so many situations where an emotion might be tracking to an invalid stimulus that I wouldn't attach labels to it. Some people are more emotionally sensitive than others, and they tend to be stimulated emotionally more often. However, if the same emotion comes up a lot of the time, that can be an issue. This post may be helpful: How Much Emotion is Too Much?

By: Aprilflower

Aprilflower — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 06:28:27 +0000

I’m new to these post, but so much of what you’re saying rings true with me fom my ears to my toes.

By: Aprilflower

Aprilflower — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 06:25:48 +0000

I have a question about feelings or emotions and trueness or rightness. Should your feelings be right most the time if you want to be considered emotionally healthy? Or if they’re not right most the time(cause like you said all feelings/emotions are true) wouldnt that mean something’s kind of wrong?

By: Karla

Karla — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 04:53:04 +0000

Hi Bonnie – you’re not alone in your confusion, and I think your reasoning is understandable. Emotions are often evoked by action, and they require an action — there’s a tremendous amount of movement around emotions. Emotions – emotere — also motivate us; they move us.

And as Antonio Damasio says, they’re action-requiring neurological programs. They’re action figures!

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 03:33:12 +0000

Hi, Karla,
I’ve always thought of feeling as the noun and emotion as the verb. E-motion is “motion away from.” As in external motion. Hope you can better understand why I sometimes find your text confusing until I sort it out.
Thanks for the work you do.
Bonnie

By: leslie o'keeffe

leslie o'keeffe — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 01:44:20 +0000

thank you Karla,
I look forward to reading your books, checking out the one for children as well , and looking at Dr Levine’s work. Between all of these, perhaps I will better understand my emotions and what I am actually feeling. Maybe even know why I feel certain ways and what it is trying to tell me. I am finding your videos very interesting and hopeful in trying to understand more the language of emotions

By: Karla

Karla — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 00:39:28 +0000

Hello Leslie, Thanks for your questions. I don't know of any other books that look at emotions in terms of what they do, what gifts they bring, and how to work with them directly (instead of trying to suppress them, change them, or magically transform them). However, there is a good book for kids written by Mary Lamia, and I think it's a good entree into the subject. Here's a page where I talk about it, and if you click on the book cover, you'll link to the ordering page on Amazon. It will probably be in your local library as well. Oh, and for PTSD, somatic work, and especially the work of Dr. Peter Levine, can be just amazingly helpful. It's what I used for my own PTSD, and I really wouldn't use anything else, so it's got a big thumbs up from me. Here's his professional training site, which includes a directory of somatic-trained therapists throughout the world. I hope that helps! Karla