Nod. But feelings can also affect thoughts. When I'm depressed, certain thoughts don't have any reality to them.
"I will feel better, eventually" is almost certainly true; I've never not come out of a depressive episode. But it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't create any feeling of hope, and if you asked me if I believed it, my gut reaction is to say "no". My intellect will intervene, and say "yes, I suppose I will feel better eventually". But it's like saying "the sun is 93 million miles away." It's just a fact, that I'm intellectually aware of, but that doesn't have any deep meaning to me. I don't really have any conception of 93 million miles... it's just a number.
That's why I think, someday, there might be an emotion-shaping therapy, to go with thought-shaping.
But I could be wrong... you're right, in the end, it's our perceptions and thoughts that shape how we respond to things.
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"I will feel better, eventually" is almost certainly true; I've never not come out of a depressive episode. But it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't create any feeling of hope, and if you asked me if I believed it, my gut reaction is to say "no". My intellect will intervene, and say "yes, I suppose I will feel better eventually". But it's like saying "the sun is 93 million miles away." It's just a fact, that I'm intellectually aware of, but that doesn't have any deep meaning to me. I don't really have any conception of 93 million miles... it's just a number.
That's why I think, someday, there might be an emotion-shaping therapy, to go with thought-shaping.
But I could be wrong... you're right, in the end, it's our perceptions and thoughts that shape how we respond to things.