Feelings Are Meant To Be Felt

Feelings are meant to be felt.

Touch is a felt sense, experienced through feeling. Smell and taste are felt. Emotions have correspondent manifestations in the physical body, as in neurotransmitters such as dopamine, adrenaline, endorphin, etc.

Feelings are responsible for physical changes in your heart rate, breathing patterns, size of pupil, or color of your skin — to name a few.

Your feelings are real, and they are meant to be felt.

Reason and emotion have been considered opposing forces. However, neuroscience research reveals that feelings and thoughts are always closely intertwined. Imaging technology shows that emotional stimuli have more relevance than neutral ones when it comes to neural activity. Emotions can consequently get preferential access to further cognitive processing, behaviors, and awareness. All emotions serve a purpose.

We have very sophisticated nervous systems, and our emotions guide us to evaluate and adapt to environmental incidents. The capacity of our mental processing is limited, we cannot process all information entering our senses thoroughly, so we prioritize our processing at the cost of other information.



Emotions impact our perception, memory and this very prioritization process.

Our culture is dominated by avoiding and suppressing our emotions. It seems like our inability to feel our feelings is elementary to the human condition. People have found a variety of ways to cope, numb, and not feel.

Addiction, dissociation, procrastination, physical activities — are some ways in which people eschew their emotional selves.



The lifespan of a single emotion is an average of 90 seconds, with some emotions lasting longer than others. Feelings can be painful, confusing, and scary, but luckily, you can build up your tolerance for your emotions. Allow your feelings to come and go without judging or trying to change it. Observe it, identify it, recognize it in yourself, in your memory, in your body as a physical sensation, and accept your emotions.