Thinking affecting the way that you feel

[Lobstrosity]

It has come to my attention that thinking does indeed affect the way that people feel.

Therefore, by this method:

"If I think that I am a walrus, I feel like a walrus."

[Blizzard]

This is the "hard" way and requires usually a lot of training to make it work with more intense "feelings" or to work automatically in certain situations (e.g. you're about to get into a fight and your body shifts automatically into "courageous mode").

From my experience I can tell that it's actually the other way around: Feeling affects the way people think. Most people who feel anger will not be in control of themselves and will think that they are angry. Their emotion is controlling them instead of vice versa.

[SBR*]

Agreed. Instead, thinking affects your capabilities, e.g. when I believe I can do something, it will be easier - or even possible - for me.

[Lobstrosity]

@Blizzard, I see what you're saying, but I still think that feeling is caused by the thoughts that run through your head during that situation. Anyway, the main thing that I meant to say in my first post is that thinking not only affects you in terms of emotions, but it affects everything you feel.

For example, if you get hurt and you're fine until you see blood, you think that you are badly hurt and so you feel badly hurt (I know a lot of people that get this).
If you think there's something that you need, you'll feel the need to have it.
Also, commonly with people that research different symptoms of diseases and things will think through whether they themselves have those symptoms and then think they have the actual disease.
Even if you literally thought that you were a walrus, you would feel like a walrus.

[Blizzard]

Your perception and your thoughts can trigger an emotion, but most people don't control it. Their emotion controls them.
The things that you are explaining are proving my point actually. When somebody looks at their blood, they trigger the emotion of fear/panic and they can't control themselves to calm down. If you think there's something you need, it creates an emotion of being sad/incomplete/neediness that pushes you towards wanting the thing you think that you need. When people research a disease, then their attention is focused on certain symptoms and they conclude that the smallest signs are actual symptoms and they yet again induce themselves with an emotion of fear/panic which drives them to think that they have the disease and they believe that they have to get cured.

If people would REALLY think and then feel, then all these things would not happen, because people would know that a non-hurting wound is not a problem, they don't actually need it or that they are just imagining symptoms, because their focus is put on these certain symptoms. Pretty much the only thing you can really control are your thoughts. Obviously most people don't control their thoughts, but their thoughts are mostly controlled by their emotions.

The walrus one is a conclusion that you have made based on untrue assumptions so it doesn't hold water. Have you thought and been convinced that you are a walrus and then felt like one? No, you haven't.

[MarkHest]

I feel like a walrus sometimes.

Spoiler: ShowHide

[Lobstrosity]

I don't feel like a walrus, it's more of a Lobstro-City feel.   

[Subsonic_Noise]

Basically, emotions and thoughts affect each other in a way way more complex than we can even comprehend, and it goes both ways.
And no, we don't have our emotions fully under control. I'd go as far as saying that we can't.

[ForeverZer0]

Basically, emotions and thoughts affect each other in a way way more complex than we can even comprehend, and it goes both ways.
And no, we don't have our emotions fully under control. I'd go as far as saying that we can't.

I utterly disagree with that statement. We are all in control of our emotions, and to say otherwise is simply a way of avoiding personal responsibility.  I'm not saying 100% of the time in regard to everything, but in the overwhelming majority of cases, a person can choose how they feel about something. Your emotions are in direct relation to how you think. You have full control of how you think, and what you think. Sure, strange thoughts can pop up in your head, but it is you who make the conscious decision to either dismiss it or ponder upon it.

[Blizzard]

Of course we can't control our emotions. They are set of by certain stimuli whether physical or psychological, there is no way to actually control them. But we can control our reactions to the emotions. e.g. If we are angry, we don't have to go on a rampage. The greater you make the gap between the emotion and the reaction, the more power and control you have over your reaction. And that's the only thing that matters.

[winkio]

I think each person can only control the emotions that they understand.  For example, if I know that jealousy stems from observing unfair situations, I can now observe these same situations without being jealous, because I know what is causing it, and I am mentally coping with the cause, thus eliminating the emotional effect.

[Blizzard]

Hm... Yes, I think that understanding the emotion is important as well as admitting. Many people just won't admit certain emotions. How many times have we heard phrases like "I am not jealous" or "I am not angry, I AM CALM" or similar. I would still say it has more to do with denial than lack of understanding. Emotions are something too basic to not be understood properly. Although I personally can relate to both scenarios. e.g. As I really had pretty much no tendency of jealousy, I didn't really know what it feels like until I was over 20-something. I remember at one point that I had this "weird emotion", because of something (I think I was 20 or 21) and this is the first time I realized it was jealousy. I may have had that emotion just a few times in my life so I wasn't familiar with it. But it was just too simple to not understand it so I don't believe that a lack of understanding is that much of a problem.

Also, there are many emotions which are actually the same, only their association is different. e.g. The emotions of fear, excitement and desire trigger actually identical sensations in the body (if I remember right, even the same chemicals), only their association (in form of images, sounds, smells, kinaestethics, etc.) differs. A neutral association would cause desire, a negative one fear and a positive one excitement. Once I was made aware of that fact, I've tried it out many times and I realized that they really are the same emotion. You can imagine how my mind was blown. >.<

[ForeverZer0]

If we have no control of our emotions, how does something that once made us angry not to do anymore?  How does one forgive another?  If they are nothing more than stimuli, then they would still have the same effect.  You have far more control of your emotions than simply finding new ways of dealing with them. The majority of the time its simply a matter of perspective, and how you choose to look at things, the key word being "choose". Take anger for example, you can either choose to let go your anger, and realize that sitting around being angry isn't helping anything, or you can choose to remain in it and be unhappy. The same goes for any emotion.

[Subsonic_Noise]

Basically, emotions and thoughts affect each other in a way way more complex than we can even comprehend, and it goes both ways.
And no, we don't have our emotions fully under control. I'd go as far as saying that we can't.

I'm not saying 100% of the time in regard to everything

fully under control.

Bleh.

[ForeverZer0]

"I'd go as far as saying that we can't" is kinda hard to take out of context, but apparently I managed to, and for that I apologize.

[MarkHest]

What about my "self-brainwash" i talked about in my "The power of the mind" topic?
I said there, think highly of yourself and you will feel good. Think that you realy realy realy want to be happy and you WILL eventually become happy.

Isn't this just some simple thoughts that effects how we feel?

[Blizzard]

If we have no control of our emotions, how does something that once made us angry not to do anymore?  How does one forgive another?  If they are nothing more than stimuli, then they would still have the same effect.  You have far more control of your emotions than simply finding new ways of dealing with them. The majority of the time its simply a matter of perspective, and how you choose to look at things, the key word being "choose". Take anger for example, you can either choose to let go your anger, and realize that sitting around being angry isn't helping anything, or you can choose to remain in it and be unhappy. The same goes for any emotion.

You can't prevent the emotion from happening, but you can learn to get used to it so its effects become weaker. If you get used to a stimuli, the emotion simply becomes weaker. Obviously the opposite is also possible if you are exposed to that stimuli a lot and the effects can become greater. e.g. You can become angry quicker if a friend repeatedly does something that annoys you. While in the beginning you may have tolerated it for some time, you will lose your patience and get angry as soon as he does his annoying thing again.

There are some emotions that will never become weaker, regardless of how many times you go through them. But you will become better and better at handling them and your body will become faster at adapting. e.g. If I get angry now, I can calm down completely in just a minute as opposed to half an hour that I used to take for that. But the emotion is as intense as ever. I can't really if I get angry, but I can control my reaction to the anger. You can try to avoid the stimuli or use a stimuli for an "opposite" emotion, though, e.g. with that what Mark said. Obviously you can teach and unteach your subconsciousness certain stimuli, but it usually takes some time. The more intense the emotion, the harder it is. e.g. Paralyzing fear of something may be untaught step by step within 6-18 months if you don't use something extreme as shock therapy. I believe that it can be done around 12 months fully, but you would have to be kept exposed to the stimuli for quite a while after so the subconsciousness doesn't switch back to the old habits.