Although your thoughts and intelligence play a key role in your career path, social status, and standard of living, it is your feelings*, emotions, and wisdom that give meaning and quality to life, making it truly worth living.

One does not really have to grasp the clear distinctions between the words thought, feeling, emotional feeling*, and emotion to benefit from this approach when in need of help, unless one firmly believes that the above words are just semantic variations of the same concept. Nevertheless, a thorough understanding of their true nature, the semiotic differences, and the historical perspective of the above-mentioned concepts can not only help you deepen your understanding of the complexity of human nature, but it can also help you understand the predictable nature of the seemingly "magical" results of Somatic Hypnotherapy.

By all linguistic and academic standards, the words "thoughts," "feelings," and "emotions" have different semantic and semiotic values, and they are not purely philosophical concepts, random phenomena, or a kinf of thoughts that cross your mind. So, academically speaking, what is a thought? What is an emotional feeling* - commonly called feeling*? What is an emotion? The lack of scientific consensus on the functioning of the human brain has fueled many controversies about the causal relationship between thoughts, cognition, perception, feelings, emotions, state of mind, and decision-making, resulting in 82 scientifically recognized models and theories of behavior. 

So let's see what these words really mean! The academic literature provides us with as many definitions as there are models and theories of behavior in the social sciences, and authors to promote these schools of thought. In Somatic Hypnotherapy, the terms "feelings" and "emotional feelings" are often used interchangeably and refer to sensory experiences perceived onto or within the body, which are assessed, interpreted, and integrated through interoception and conceptualized by the rational mind as "emotions." - which is consistent with their traditional, biological and medical meanings, but differs considerably from the meaning of the term 'feeling' in cognitive psychology, where it often converges and merges with the term 'emotion'

From a theoretical point of view, emotional feelings* are pre-verbal bodily sensations generated by distributed autonomic, muscular, visceral, and endocrine activation patterns. These patterns arise both bottom-up from life events and top-down from memory reactivation. Through interoception, the brain continuously reads and interprets these bodily sensations as emotions. When such activation patterns remain undischarged, they regenerate emotional suffering regardless of cognitive insight. The therapeutic process of Somatic Hypnotherapy bypasses narrative cognition by directly addressing the true generators of emotional experience, which are those persistent somatic activation patterns, perceived as raw bodily sensations, thus enabling autonomous system completion, interoceptive decoupling, and memory reconsolidation.

While thoughts are pure mental experiences and feelings are sensory experiences, emotions are defined as the result of a process of cognitive reading, or mental reflection (mirroring) of emotional feelings. Animals experience fear, joy, compassion, pain, and many other feelings without truly conceptualizing them, and therefore without experiencing (technically speaking) emotions as humans define them. Yet, they never misunderstand the nature, meaning, or intensity of their feelings, and react accordingly. For what truly motivates the behavior of all living beings is their feelings, and not necessarily their mental understanding (emotions). Thus, our behavioral reaction patterns are deeply rooted psycho-physiological scripts (software) governed by the subconscious mind, and determined more by how we feel than what we think about our feelings.

Across the many established models of human behaviour, emotions are not understood in a single, uniform way. Some approaches place meaning and interpretation at the centre, others emphasize learned responses, social context, or evolutionary programs. Yet a growing group of contemporary frameworks - often referred to as interoceptive constructionist models - converge around a key insight that resonates deeply with the foundations of Somatic Hypnotherapy: emotions are not generated by thought alone, but emerge from lived bodily states.

Interoceptive Constructionist Models of Emotion refer to a family of behavioral and neuroscientific frameworks which propose that emotions are not pre-packaged reactions, but are constructed from ongoing bodily signals. In these models, felt physiological states constitute the biological substrate of emotional experience, while interoception - the sensing and interpretation of internal bodily signals  - serves as the central mechanism through which these states are organized into what we experience as emotions.

In this view, what we commonly call an “emotion” is a constructed experience arising from how the nervous system senses and organizes internal signals from the body. Thoughts may guide, interpret, or influence this process, but it is the felt physiological state that ultimately shapes emotional experience and behavioural readiness. This perspective aligns with a somatic-first therapeutic approach, where meaningful emotional change begins not by forcing new thoughts, but by working directly with the underlying bodily states from which emotions are formed.

A widely accepted academic view defines emotions as coherent, deeply rooted psycho-physiological experiences, shaped by social norms.

 (A Damasio, 1994; JM Diefendorff, 2011; A Grecucci, 2015; RP Weissberg, 2015; Hutchison & Gerstein, 2017; Humphrey et al., 2020, etc.) 

To emphasize the distinction between feelings and emotions, a useful analogy is the distinction between raw sound waves and music, or between biological sex and gender. The above parallels highlight a shared pattern: sound waves, sex, and emotional feelings are determined physically, biologically, or physiologically, with universal and measurable bases (frequency, amplitude, chromosomes, hormonal dynamics) - while music, gender, and emotion are socially constructed concepts, shaped by cultural norms, and language. All above pairs are in a unidirectional causal relationship: sound waves are a clue to music, anatomy is a clue to gender identity, just as emotional feelings are clues to emotional recognition. 

Beyond any definition, your emotions are the most significant aspect of your quality of life and the most undeniable proof that you are not a soulless, heartless, and purposeless biochemical machine but a sentient human being in search of meaning, purpose, and happiness! Of course, everyone wants to be happy. But since there are unhappy and sick people everywhere, life's reality does not seem to emerge from people's desires. Although you can eventually use your willpower to control an emotionally driven behavior (and therefore be held accountable for your actions), I wouldn't bet on willpower alone being able to suppress intense feelings. You can pretend, but I doubt that you can feel happy or end pain just by wishing for it! When your feelings conflict with your thoughts, a tension called cognitive dissonance arises. If left unresolved, it can have long-term negative repercussions.

Although emotions are mental experiences, it does not mean intentional thoughts can create emotional feelings out of sheer will. The belief that intentional thoughts could create or induce emotional feelings is nothing but a false popular belief. Of course, your thoughts can induce certain "states of mind" by selectively triggering or awakening your stored emotional feelings that are linked to your emotionally significant life experiences. However, of the 82 scientifically recognized models and theories of behavior, none claim that intentional thought could create or induce emotional feelings. The human brain is hardwired in such a way that sensory inputs always pass through the emotional centers of the brain before reaching the frontal cortex - the place where rational thought occurs. It is therefore physically impossible for intentional thoughts to create emotional feelings through willpower alone.

The mind is the immaterial set of faculties comprising various cognitive and non-cognitive aspects called consciousness and respectively the subconscious mind. Consciousness is the accessible part of the mind that governs rational thoughts, intelligence, factual memory, judgment, and coordinates thoughtful actions. The subconscious mind operates as an autopilot guided mainly by intuition, instincts, habits, and feelings. Although they work so differently, your consciousness and sub-consciousness work together as coherent software to help you face life's challenges, survive and thrive. However, although from an academic perspective, the concept of mindset has not changed over time, its popular perception has undergone several changes.

Traditionally, feelings, perceived as sensory experiences, were seen as the voice of the soul! When Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism and the author of the famous "Tao Te Chin", assures us that "If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will follow", he refers to "the mind" and one should not wrongly assume that by "mind" he meant "brain" or "intellect". When it comes to brain and intellect, Lao Tzu is crystal clear on how to get the most out of it when he suggests that you should "Stop thinking and put an end to your problems". It seems that Einstein understood this message because on several occasions he stated: "I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me."

State of mind plays a major role in people's daily experiences as well as in their physical and mental well-being. In their constant quest for a better state of mind, people have always known that the best the brain can do to the mind is to read accurately its state, not determine it. Because if it were possible for the brain to determine the state of mind by inducing the desired emotional feelings by sheer will, then everyone could have focused their brain on the self-induction of pleasure, serenity, well-being and happiness, and live a joyful life forever. However, in real life, whether we like it or not, "the heart" always has its reasons that reason does not understand! 

Traditionally, the heart was seen as the seat of the soul and its state reverberated in the physical body in the form of sensory experiences, commonly known as "feelings". This traditional view of feelings was dominated by the belief that whatever feeling arises against your reason, it will not succumb to your reason alone. During the 19th century, the concept that disturbing thoughts are not only induced by harmful feelings but can also generate disturbing states of mind, as well as the concept that states of mind have their distinct chemical (hormonal) footprint, have gained in popularity - especially among laic believers in the new dogma that "soul" and "spirit" are merely philosophical concepts, drawn from the new liberal orthodoxy that regards humans as nothing more than "intelligent apes" or "bio-programmable machines."

Meanwhile, due to a cultural and linguistic shift that took place under intense political pressure - known as secularization, "feelings" gradually became "emotional feelings" and, nowadays, "emotions." The same forces have shifted the initial focus of Psychiatry and Psychology from the mind and soul to consciousness and the brain. Initially, "psychiatry" was known as the medicine of the soul or spirit, etymologically evolving from the Greek words "psyche" - soul/spirit, and "iatry" - treatment. The concept of "psychology" has evolved from "psyche" - soul/spirit, and "logos", meaning speech or study in greek. This is why, until the end of the 19th century, "psychology" was known and studied not as a separate scientific field, but as a branch of "philosophy."

Thus, because of endless controversies regarding the nature of emotions, it was only after 1844 that psychiatrists gradually imposed their treatment as a first-line intervention, and psychologists after 1892. Furthermore, since the concept of "emotion" was not yet clearly defined when the first DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) was published in 1952, the word "emotion" appears only twice, whereas in the latest edition of the DSM, it is mentioned hundreds of times. When cognitive-behavioral models were launched, their enthusiastic proponents assumed that intentional thoughts alone could control emotions and behavior. These models ridicule the concepts of the soul, spirit, and emotionally sensitive heart while suggesting the brain's cognitive functions as the probable source of emotional feelings and behavior.

Although cognitive models are still popular, the main cognitive theories are only a few of the 82 contemporary behavior theories. Thus, after the enthusiastic wave of cognitive models faded, the traditional concept of feelings has restored its popularity in light of the scientific recognition of several contemporary models of emotional behavior, particularly the Somatic Marker Behavioral Model developed in the early '90s by the American neuroscientist Prof. Dr. Antonio Damasio and Prof. Dr. Joseph LeDoux. Today's view of emotions is that they are experienced at four different but closely interrelated levels: the mental or psychological level, the physiological level (the chemistry of your body / brain), the somatic level (bodily emotional feelings), and the behavioral level. These complementary aspects are coherent and present in all human emotions.

According to renowned neuroscientist Dr. Antonio Damasio, "Feelings form the basis of what humans have described for millennia as the soul or human spirit." At their best, feelings point us in the proper direction; take us to the appropriate place in a decision-making space, where we may put the instruments of logic to good use. Or those feelings we call "intuition" or "gut feeling" which is a sophisticated form of intelligence operating almost instantaneously, and below the conscious mind. Is that almost surreal feeling of knowing it without really understanding why or where it comes from; the feeling that something is right, or terribly wrong, or that we are in danger, long before the conscious mind grasps it. At their worst, intense feelings tend to disrupt the rational mind, and can thus end up altering our decisions, controlling our lives, poisoning our existence and driving us to despair.

Emotional coherence theory states that, when present, emotions always include a bodily feeling called somatic component, a chemical (hormonal) component, and a cognitive component - which is the meaning your mind makes of your emotional feelings, manifesting simultaneously! From a biological and neurophysiological perspective - whether they are genetically determined, or result from a chemical, physiological or cognitive process - feelings are at the heart of life's regulatory processes for all living creatures. It is good to know that any thought that crosses your mind without arousing any feeling is nothing but a thought, not an emotion.

As you already know, your state of mind has a strong grip on your thoughts, your behavior, and on the symptoms of your illnesses. When angry, people tend to think, say, and do silly things. Yet, most people who regularly say or do silly things are not necessarily angry - because intense emotional feelings control thoughts and behavior, not the other way around! Definitely, your thoughts have the power to awaken your emotions. However, even if you manage to control to a certain degree the behavior driven by emotions awakened by your thoughts, I would not count on reason alone to suppress powerful feelings which have become a constant presence in your life.

Ancestral wisdom teaches us that in real life, feelings that arise against your will are unlikely to succumb to your reason - for only that which is born of reason can be banished by reason alone. Yet, whether they arise from your reason or against your will, emotional feelings will always have cognitive meaning, in the sense that your brain will know that your butterflies or the knots in your belly are not real but are there to tell you when you are in love or when you are afraid. When you do crazy things against your rational will, it's not that you lack judgment but rather that your feelings have taken over your decision-making process.

Since there is a certain amount of feelings involved in each decision you make, it appears that living a fulfilled life is much more about emotions, feelings, and beliefs than about intellect or thinking. The quality of your daily life decisions does not depend upon your IQ or on the level and quality of your academic instruction. The quality of your life depends on the quality of your decisions that rely mainly on your education, beliefs, wisdom, values, and above all, on the quality of your emotions. This is good news actually because while your IQ is an inborn gift that declines with age, your emotional intelligence grows as you mature and deepen your spirituality. Aside from your intentional thoughts—which determine your salary and standard of living—there isn't much actually happening in the intentionally accessible part of your brain that would impact the quality of your life.

Through your sensory perceptions, the brain takes note and makes sense of what is happening in your world. When your eyes see an image or your ears hear a sound, what gives meaning and value to images and sounds is your brain. However, you understand that the images and sounds are in the environment, outside of you. Likewise, I hope you understand that emotional feelings do not happen outside of you and not in your brain either, but "within you" - whether you call that "inside" your body, your subconscious, your soul, your spirit, or your nervous system. Whether inherited or drawn from your life experiences, our emotional feelings end up inhabiting you and you have no doubt about it because you feel them.

Although your memories can arouse emotional feelings related to your past events, you cannot create new emotional feelings (feelings) out of thin air, by sheer will alone. You think in words, sentences, and images, but you experience your emotions as emotional feelings, which are a kind of physical sensations in your body, called "feelings," or "somatic markers." Although conventional personal psychology, when analyzing the cognitive component of emotions describes many distinct emotions, the practice of Somatic Hypnotherapy focuses primarily on the sensory experience of emotions, called emotional feelings or, simply, "feelings".

From a scientific perspective, the sensory experience of emotions, called “emotional feeling,” is a “complex interplay of neurophysiological, cognitive, and sensory processes”—which is a fancy way of saying that science, frankly, doesn't have a clear statement about what emotional feelings are. This gap opens the way for various scientific models of emotional feeling - or hypotheses about what forward-thinking scientists assume feelings to be - ideas that have not achieved scientific consensus, but are nonetheless not absurd. The best-known models of emotional feeling are Dr. Antonio Damasio’s “Somatic Marker Hypothesis” and Dr. Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of “Morphic Fields” and “Morphic Resonance”.

Dr. Antonio Damasio, a prominent neuroscientist, introduced the concept of somatic markers in his somatic marker hypothesis, detailed in his 1994 book Descartes Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. Somatic markers are a mechanism by which emotional experiences, stored as bodily states, influence decision-making and reasoning, often unconsciously. Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, a biologist and author known for his unconventional theories, posits that emotional feelings and inheritance operate through mechanisms beyond traditional science, specifically via "morphic fields" and "morphic resonance." Which makes sense to those familiar with Dr. Bruce Lipton's theory of epigenetic inheritance and the failure of the "human genome project".

Dr. Antonio Damasio defines "somatic markers" as emotionally charged bodily signals (states) rooted in the body's visceral and sensory reactions. He posits that emotional experiences create somatic markers, like memories of events rooted in the body. These are physiological responses that occur when a person is faced with a decision or situation and act as a shortcut to guide choices based on previous experiences and outcomes, helping the brain effectively manage complex decisions. They bias decision-making by influencing decision choices, often even before any conscious deliberation. Somatic markers are not abstract thoughts or emotions, but physical sensations charged with emotional meaning, shaped by memory and learning.

...to be continued.... :)

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Disclaimer: The content of this page reflects the opinion of its author, is provided for educational and general informational purposes only, and does not constitute medical, psychological, or professional advice. I do not make any diagnoses according to recognized classifications (DSM-5, ICD-10) and I do not interfere in any way with ongoing treatments.

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*In Somatic Hypnotherapy, the terms "feelings" and "emotional feelings" are often used interchangeably and refer to sensory experiences perceived onto or within the body, assessed, interpreted, and integrated through interoception and conceptualized by the rational mind as "emotions." - which is consistent with their traditional, biological and medical meanings, but differs considerably from the meaning of the term 'feeling' in cognitive psychology, where it often converges and merges with the term 'emotion'.

**The results may vary from person to person.

***In other words, if at the end of your session you don't see any improvement in the issues addressed in therapy, I won't accept your money!

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