Cognition and Emotion

For years I have been studying how cognition influences emotion, or how our thinking drives our feelings. I can remember very clearly telling myself in high school that while I could help what I thought and what I did, I could not help what I felt. I don't know why at the time I believed that so strongly. Perhaps it is because in the teen years emotions can be so very powerful. As it turns out, I was wrong about being able to help what I felt because I did not understand the link between thoughts and emotions.

Many people are bothered by feelings about past events or are fearful about the future they imagine. As the first figure shows, the past and future can have no direct impact in our lives because they are, by definition, not present. However, we are capable of remembering (re-presenting) the past and imagining (pre-presenting) the future in the present through our thinking. In other words, we create a present-based version of the past or future. So we can "experience" the past or future in our thoughts, but not in reality. If we remember the past with fondness or look forward to the future with hopeful anticipation, this can be a blessing. However, too many look backward with regret and forward with fear. This is not useful or healthy. The past is behind us and cannot harm us; only our thinking about the past can cause us to suffer. Similarly, the future is before us and cannot harm us; only our thinking can do so. I hold to Dan Zadra's notion that "Worry is a misuse of imagination."

And while we do experience others and events or circumstances in the present, it is our thinking about these that are the cause of stress and suffering. This is a difficult concept to understand and accept, but is so powerful and liberating. The power of our minds and our agency is phenomenol.

What is the main message of the first figure? I experience the world -- past, present and future -- through my thoughts, which give rise to the emotions I feel. If I struggle and suffer, the immediate cause is my thinking about the past, the present, others and events or circumstances, and not any of those things directly.

The second figure expands on this by illustrating that living in the world of "should" and "should not" rather than in the world of "what is" (reality) is the cause of our suffering. This, again, is a function of our thinking. My friend, Rebecca Overson, counsels that we stop "shoulding all over ourselves" in order to end our suffering. The wise come to learn that "pain is inevitable; suffering is optional." (Unknown author)

We enjoy a gift of agency that cannot be taken from us. While we may not enjoy the power to change the circumstances we face in life, we always have the power of choice regarding our thinking about what we experience and, thus, the associated feelings. More on this later ...