The reservoir of feelings and thoughts exists in our mind and all our decisions are made using these two faculties of our cognition. The relationship between the two is interesting because thoughts provoke feelings and feelings provoke thoughts.
The unpleasantness of our experience have feelings at its core. Thoughts are torchbearers for feelings because of the relationship the two hold with each other. When we pay attention to feelings we become aware of its illusory nature. Some feelings can be tricks played by our unconscious to reach a goal unaware. Thus, giving up to feelings can often lead to an unsatisfactory life. To keep our feelings in check we should use thoughts to investigate them.
Through feelings and thoughts we can lead ourselves to wisdom, because thoughts manifest themselves in our actions when our feelings and thoughts are integrated. One can read multiple essays or books and not get the desired results. It is one thing to know wise words and another to understand them. Experiencing the world gives us reliable knowledge which most often is articulated in our actions, it is because we understand what we experience.
The most discussed feelings in the world are love and hate. Often they are considered antithetical to each other. When we introspect hate, the appearing opposite nature of love and hate falls short.
The opposite of feeling should be absence of feeling. As Wilhelm Stekel said, “Disinclination, which is coloured by feeling, often only serves the purpose of concealing and protecting oneself against an inclination.”
A study published in the on-line journal PLOS ONE, neurobiologists found out striking similarities between love and hate. Scientists found that some of the nervous circuits in the brain responsible for hate are similar to the ones that are used for romantic love.
What’s interesting about the study is that one majore difference between the two feelings is the use of cerebral cortex becomes deactivated during love whereas only a little is deactivated during hate. This shows that our brain becomes more critical and sharp during hate.
When we investigate our hate, often, we find it embedded in a desire. Sometimes these desires are unknown which leads to a meaningless lifestyle.
We should aim for a personal intervention for ourselves. When we have a feeling close to hate, we should aim to be honest with ourselves and reach the roots of that emotion. The key here is to be honest, to let ourselves have complete freedom of speech in our mind.
– Hrithik Rana
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