Emotions, Feelings & Moods… Do You Know the Difference?

Moods –Understanding the way that we feel and sometimes even monitoring our own feelings is very important. Moods are basically ‘emotional states’ and should not be confused with ‘emotions’ or ‘feelings’. Either we can be in a good mood or a bad mood. 

Moods are mixtures of feelings and emotions as we go about through the days.  It is semi-persistent mental + physical + emotional state.

 It is very different from our ‘temperaments’, which are those aspects of our personality, which are often ‘innate’ rather than ‘learned.’ Depression, bipolar disorder, chronic stress, persistent depressive disorder, and SAD-Seasonal Affective Disorder are some of the different mood disorders that people face.

A ‘social mood’ is often given its name because of its collective and shared state of mind. There are many different factors that are known to affect one’s mood and these may include ‘the amount of sleep’ that one gets, ‘the nutritional levels’ he/she gets and his/her ‘facial expressions’.

So while there are many different emotions and feelings that we may have, lets understand the basic two types of moods: positive and negative.

Good moods are positive states of mind, which can actually be considered a state of mind that has not been caused by a particular reason. You can’t pinpoint what gets you in a ‘good mood’ and this state of mind is generally felt after a good night of sleep. Upon awakening, people do not feel stressed at all.

Negative moods are in contrast to good moods and often are considered non-constructive. They are directly connected with anxiety, depression, poor self-esteem, stress and aggression.

Now that it is clear what moods there are, it is very important to know how different this is from feelings. There are many gaps between feelings, emotions and acting and we need to know how to address them so as to be able to direct our lives for the better. It impacts your thinking ability and behaviour and understand how you can maintain a balance – a sense of purpose, peace and move forward with your goals in life.

             

Feelings happen after the emotion takes place, involves cognitive input and cannot be measured precisely. Feelings can get sparked by emotions and get coloured by thoughts, images and memories.  To illustrate this, just thinking about something that is threatening can trigger an emotional fear response.     

Feelings occur as we integrate an emotion and begin to “think about it”. This is what is meant by “let it soak in”. Feelings get fuelled by emotions and last longer. Feelings are when we assign meaning to the emotions. It is when we act upon emotional data.

Emotions are short-lived feelings that are created because of a known cause. Moods on the other hand are longer lasting and generally do not have any clear starting point of time.  

However, you can experience different emotions such as being happy (feeling joy), feeling sad (sadness), ecstatic, prideful, afraid (fear), feeling angry (anger), feeling disgusted (the feeling that something is nasty or wrong), surprise (feeling unprepared for something) and trust which is a positive emotion.

Emotions are instinctual and they precede feelings. Emotions are the immediate physiological response to any situation. Emotions lead to chemicals being released in the body that last for about 6 seconds. We have emotions because we adapt to our environment. They are physical and can be objectively measured by blood flow, facial expressions, brain activity and body language.

Feelings are mental portrayals of what is going on in the body – when you have an emotion. It is the byproduct of the brain perceiving and assigning meaning to the emotion.

However, many people lack this self-awareness and this creates a lot of confusion.  Emotions and feelings play a very important role in the way that we interact with one another and experience different things in the world. It is very important to be aware of the difference between emotions, feelings and moods as it plays an important role in navigating the world and making decisions in life.