Do Not Confuse Emotions With Reality

When we talk about reality, we mean what we can objectively perceive through our senses. It is not a subjective interpretation. The difference can determine how you feel and this is very important to keep in mind.

What you think or feel about a situation is not the same as what really happens. We must think about this if we want to maintain a certain well-being in the face of the different realities that we may encounter…

Thoughts and feelings

Thoughts and feelings are related in a certain way. How we feel depends on what we think. The way we interpret facts depends on the psychological changes and bodily reactions that take place within us. We call these reactions emotions and we can evaluate or interpret them as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

You often do not know how to distinguish between a feeling and a thought. Although they are closely related, they are two different things. It is worth thinking about how to differentiate between them if you want more control over your own mood. The difference goes beyond definitions, and this will affect how you treat them.

In psychology, cognitive errors are common. However, this is not something we think about when dealing with bad situations. A mistake there when it comes to thoughts can be defined as a distorted interpretation of what is really happening. In other words, we live in a construction of a reality, which is more or less close to what is happening, as a function of our perceptions and not in accordance with our five senses.

These mistakes often give us dysfunctional feelings. Anyone who looks at the world in a more realistic way and maintains a rational dialogue with himself will have healthier feelings than a person who tells unrealistic and illogical things to himself, as well as fairy tales.

The snow is not red

In therapy, people often say “I understand what you’re telling me, but that’s how it is and that’s how I feel, I think it’s real. This is a very typical thought error: to confuse emotions with reality. This argument and these thoughts can give up on dysfunctional behaviors.

The truth is that reality is what it is, no less, nothing more. However, we can create a subjective reality for convenience, even if it may have a high price. I have often been told things like “If I feel it, it is this way”. I have given them the example of red snow, but all examples that have to do with colors are just as good. There are few people who can argue about color!

I tell them that it is as if I were saying “The snow is red and not white, because I feel it is red, and because I know this it is so”. Of course, everyone who had heard this had said that I was crazy. So even though I “feel” that the snow is red, the truth is that it is white.

We do the same thing on many occasions in our lives. Sometimes we have a naive view while others have a very hard view, but it is difficult for us to observe reality as it is.

We can see this clearly when it comes to anorexia. The victims feel fat even though their bodies show us that this is not the case. However, they cling to this feeling and behave accordingly.

Enjoy reality

Living means going through good and bad times. It is good if we take note of what is happening in our lives and “force ourselves” to look beyond this, and that we clean our glasses often. Otherwise, we will see things in a damn way and no longer perceive the difference between what exists and what we believe exists.

To do this, you need to see the errors in your thinking that sometimes arise. Today we have talked about confusing emotions with reality, but there are many others: to personify a situation, to believe that you are a fortune teller, to generalize concrete facts, etc. Once you have seen the mistakes, you will strive to no longer see reality. from a twisted interpretation.

Slowly but surely you become more realistic and adapt to the world as water adapts to a container. The result is a calmer and happier life, where the reality you see is more real than before, and not a life marked by pathological emotions that block you and hold you back.