Confusion Between Feelings and Thinking

As concerns methods of therapy that suggest "focusing on feelings" I would like to say further that due to the process of pain perception it is impossible to focus on feelings without thinking about them. This is because all feelings and emotions and pain of any kind are produced in the subcortex, and the signals that pain and emotion are being produced must go up the brain and not only be received but acknowledged in the neocortex before a human being can feel physical pain or emotions.

This moment of acknowledgment is usually beneath our awareness but once you understand that it exists you can better understand the very intricate relationship between feelings and thinking. Feelings and emotions are defense mechanisms, they are warnings. It does not seem reasonable to me stay stuck in warnings (which you would have to force yourself to do in order to focus on feelings) rather than move on to direct action which you decide upon as a result of warnings.

The other thing to consider is that many feelings and emotions are irrational, rather than the result of responses to actual danger. Many feelings and emotions are not necessarily legitimate warnings but replays in the mind of old neural patterns that are triggered off accidentally through learned association. This is because no matter how much you focus on some feeling, you are never going to get rid of that neural pattern in your brain.

So, concerning any neural pattern carrying some feeling or emotional that is painful, irrational, or unhelpful to moving forward with your day, once it pops up, and you acknowledge that it is not useful (if you are acknowledging a feeling, therefore you are not repressing it) , it seems to me it is wise to simply ignore it and choose another thought that moves you forward with another neural pattern that is more productive.

This process of pain perception is also the reason that hypnosis is a very effective treatment for the management of chronic physical pain. For a good book about chronic physical pain I would suggest the book "A Whole New Life" by Reynolds Price.