Do You Question Your Feelings Like You Question Your Thoughts?

If not, perhaps it’s time.

Between the two, people seem more inclined to question their thoughts, and take their feelings as a given.
Some people even say, “You are your feelings.”
But I beg to differ. Your feelings can be as accurate as your thoughts. And have you never questioned a thought you’ve had?

The experience of a feeling is quite different than the experience of a thought.
We tend to live our feelings; they move us; they resonate through us. Our thoughts, on the other hand, are a bit more distant.
And because we feel our feelings and only think our thoughts, we tend not to question the accuracy of our feelings. We go through life acting as if our feelings come from some genuine source.
But have you never had an argument in which, in the moment, you feel fully justified in saying or doing what you feel, only to regret doing so later?

To be clear, I’m not implying that all our feelings are wrong or inaccurate.
If you’re having a great day filled with positive feelings, go with it.
If someone has truly done you wrong, being angry seems totally appropriate.

But does that mean our feeling are always accurate?
Don’t our thoughts and feelings come from the same place, i.e. somewhere inside of us? And are they not generated almost automatically?
Ask yourself: Do you deliberately create your thoughts? Do you deliberately create your feelings?
No, they just come to us.

So, just as you might hold up a thought to further inspection, it’s helpful to do the same with your feelings, particularly those instantaneous negative ones.
Instead of being reflexively lived by them, we likely could do better if they truly reflected the person and leader we strive to become.