Where Feelings Come From

Think of feelings as the conclusions or interpretations the brain makes about what the emotion means, what it might be trying to communicate, and its relative importance to you. A collection of brain structures work together to create a feeling: some in the brain stem and in the cerebral cortex including the insular cortex. You are not responsible for every feeling that arises. You are responsible for the feelings you choose to hang onto and act on because your brain created them. Since feelings always follow thoughts, to change the way you feel, change the way you think. There are hundreds of feeling words for a relatively small number of pure emotions. Happy, elated, delighted, and euphoric for joy; terror, panic, worry, and anxiety for fear; rage, fury, resentment, and irritation for anger; and miserable, unhappy, depressed, and sorrowful for sadness.