Should You Always Trust Your Feelings? Why?
When having a conversation with a few friends, an important question came up, Should you always trust your feelings?. The topic really made me think and ask myself, "Do I always trust my feelings?", so I decided to write about it and here we are.
First, allow me to say that feeling is a way of thinking and reacting to things that are emotional and not planned rather than logical and practical. OR Feeling, in psychology, the perception of events within the body, closely related to emotion.
Now, personally, I believe that feelings can not always be trusted. As they have a strong influence on how we react or deal with certain things, especially things that are strongly connected with things we stand for, such as culture, religion, race, sexuality and etc.
I say that because when feelings are strongly involved in certain circumstances that require critical thinking, we tend to lose the ability to critically analyse the facts with serenity and higher understanding. Which then results in extended problems, unsolved problems, hurt feelings and many others.
Feelings can have a bad influence and affect us when we allow them to take absolute control of ourselves and direct us on making important decisions in our lives. This happens because emotions/ feelings don’t allow us to think precisely/ well enough, by analyzing all the circumstances and see things from a different perspective.
According to research "Emerging from the 1960’s counter-culture and certain schools of psychology, the focus on anchoring in emotions has had a number of unexpected consequences. One is that ideals of maturity rooted in religious and, philosophical traditions seem to have been lost.
From that point of view, a mature person does not simply act on impulse or from emotion. Rather they learn to refine and witness their emotions – especially the ones which can be problematic and harmful to their larger life goals and relationships. By doing this, they are able to take a broader and longer view taking into account the good of their family and community alongside their own desires and wishes". (McCann, 2017)
Don't allow your feelings to lead you but let them complement you.
However, I also share the idea that feelings are extremely important. Because they pass us a sense of security and good energy, which creates good emotions depending on the circumstances.
I'm quite sure you're familiar with the terms "gut instinct or intuition."
"Gut instinct, or intuition, is your immediate understanding of something; there’s no need to think it over or get another opinion—you just know.
Your intuition arises as a feeling within your body that only you experience. Because the feeling is so personal, that no one else can weigh in to tell you if you’re in touch with your gut instinct or not. You alone have to make the call. Because of this, trusting your intuition is the ultimate act of trusting yourself". One love. 2018.
Overall, I think is not right to always trust your feelings as your guide. Because we should always be aware of our decisions and how they’re going to impact us in the future.
In Jeremiah 17:9, God says, “The heart is more deceitful than all things and desperately wicked; who can understand it?
Many of us claim to understand our hearts better than any other; many of us believe that we know our hearts very well. If we’re honest enough, we know that our hearts cannot be relied on as a guide or a compass. We cannot let our feelings dictate what we do. (Christian Today, 2017).
This is the end of this blog, thank you so much for your support and please don't forget to comment down below and leave your thoughts on this matter.
Remember: Don't allow your feelings to lead you but let them complement you.