One of my patients handed me an article about “emotional maturity” and I decided to write about it.
First, it is important to define what “emotional maturity” really is. The article defined it as “the development from a state of taking to a state of giving and sharing. Another way to say that is, developing from natural impulses and responses of human nature to the principle of loving one’s neighbor as oneself.
Second, no one is born with “emotional maturity”. It must be learned by the mind and developed through self-discipline of our emotions and feelings.
Third, there are six basic core emotions evident among all cultures: happiness, sadness, surprise, disgust, anger and fear. These are generated in the brain by our thoughts and can come from the unconscious as well. E-motion or “energy in motion” prepares and anticipates action. Emotions deal with physiological responses coming from the expression of our personality. Therefore, emotion is an “umbrella term” which includes the situation, the interpretation/perception of the situation and the response or feeling related to the perception of the situation.
Fourth, feelings, on the other hand, are the internal expression of emotions. Feelings are a conscious experience dealing with sensation. They are an interpretation of raw data given by our brain and reinforced by an individual’s culture in which they grew up. Simply put, a feeling is a response part of the emotion.
I’ve always thought there was a difference between emotions and feelings so I was glad to make the distinction with a little extra research.
