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Emotions _are_ facts. By not reporting your emotions around a subject, you're omitting the facts of the situation.

wry_discontent 7y ago
I'm not a very outwardly emotional person, which sometimes causes tension in my social life. I've been trying recently to regard my emotions more as a more primitive version of thinking, rather than some other kind-of-thing. They're automatic thoughts coming from my brain that manifest as "feeling" something rather than something I can articulate into facts. It's been somewhat helpful in trying to accept my emotions rather than hide or obscure them.
- arvinsim 7y ago
  I dislike the current culture that we have that demonizes emotions. The stance that being emotionless is superior to having emotions. Emotions, like everything else, can either both drag people down....or be used to amplify their strengths. The problem is that society seems to only consider the former and disregard the latter.
jsilence 7y ago
"Emotions _are_ facts." No, they are not. They are your emotions. Not saying that they are less real or that they should be dismissed, but a threat is a fact, your fear is your emotional reaction to it. There is a difference. The difference is that you have control over your thoughts, reactions and emotions. If you do not differentiate between the outside world of facts and the inside world of thoughts and emotions, you mush them together into a mess. I can learn to master my emotions and for example dissolve my fear. That will not remove the threat. If I learn to assess the threat regardless of my emotional reaction to it, I get a better grasp on the severity of the threat and can react accordingly. That is not to say that emotions should be ignored. I'd recommend against that. Listen to yourself. If you feel the desire to journal them, by all means, do it. But for journaling _I_ prefer to differentiate and try to keep my emotions out of the narrative. You are free to do otherwise.

I'm not a very outwardly emotional person, which sometimes causes tension in my social life. I've been trying recently to regard my emotions more as a more primitive version of thinking, rather than some other kind-of-thing. They're automatic thoughts coming from my brain that manifest as "feeling" something rather than something I can articulate into facts. It's been somewhat helpful in trying to accept my emotions rather than hide or obscure them.

arvinsim 7y ago
I dislike the current culture that we have that demonizes emotions. The stance that being emotionless is superior to having emotions. Emotions, like everything else, can either both drag people down....or be used to amplify their strengths. The problem is that society seems to only consider the former and disregard the latter.

jsilence 7y ago

"Emotions _are_ facts." No, they are not. They are your emotions. Not saying that they are less real or that they should be dismissed, but a threat is a fact, your fear is your emotional reaction to it. There is a difference. The difference is that you have control over your thoughts, reactions and emotions. If you do not differentiate between the outside world of facts and the inside world of thoughts and emotions, you mush them together into a mess. I can learn to master my emotions and for example dissolve my fear. That will not remove the threat. If I learn to assess the threat regardless of my emotional reaction to it, I get a better grasp on the severity of the threat and can react accordingly. That is not to say that emotions should be ignored. I'd recommend against that. Listen to yourself. If you feel the desire to journal them, by all means, do it. But for journaling _I_ prefer to differentiate and try to keep my emotions out of the narrative. You are free to do otherwise.