Up: [[Emotions]]
Created: 2024-01-13
Updated: 2026-01-20
There are arguments to be made in both directions, but I’m going with a definition I found a couple of years ago. I don’t know the source.
**Feelings are the sensations in my body.
Emotions are feelings with stories attached.**
I also really like the idea, expressed by Christine Valters Paintner, that emotions are *energy in motion, and when we block off the experience, that energy becomes trapped in our bodies.* (*The Wisdom of the Body*, p. 73)
It’s worth noting that from a Jungian perspective, when Jung talked about “feeling” in [[Psychological Types]], he is describing a **rational** function that tells us what is of value to us. It is a function of discernment. Emotion, to Jungians, comes from an activated [[Complex]].