Feelings are judgements

And judgements can be wrong

Shraddha Mehta
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read

This is not to say that having feelings is wrong because as humans we are always going to experience them. And you might argue, isn’t that the whole point? To experience the feelings as they are. How can an experience be right or wrong?

The problem is that feelings don’t just end with us experiencing them, they lead to thoughts and perceptions about the world, how things work, about other people, etc. These thoughts and perceptions then become seeds for decisions, habits and general mindset. So if your feelings about a particular thing, person or event are wrong judgements, they can lead to thoughts and perceptions that are not aligned with the truth of that particular entity, and you end up creating a delusion for yourself.

Take illusions for example. Look at this guy over here:

How many legs does this elephant have? Whatever your answer is, it is not going to change the fact that creator of this image drew x number of legs for this elephant (even i don’t know the right answer) and it’s certainly not going to change the fact that elephants have four legs in real.

I an not trying to say that everything is an illusion and open to judgement, there are definitely truths about things which we should rely on rather than our feelings. Our brain and these feelings have evolved from the experiences of primitive humans who lived thousands of years ago. The fear that they felt when they saw a predator, helped them to run away, seek shelter, survive and get their genes to the next generation. Or the satisfaction they felt when they ate a sweet fruit, helped them to stay healthy and in turn survive and get their genes to the next generation. That was the main motive programmed in our brains by evolution, to survive and get our genes to the next generation. But now the environment and conditions around us have changed drastically, still our instinctive feelings appear to be the same. The similar fear you feel when you see your boss and in turn pee your pants is not going to help you survive or get your genes to the next generation. Or the same satisfaction you feel when you eat that pastry, or doughnut or pretty much any junk food is in fact going to do the opposite of helping you out with your survival. The actions that follow these feelings of anger or satisfaction made sense in those times, but now we need to readjust them according to the facts we know about things.

It can be pretty daunting to face these realisations for the first time. You might feel like you’ve been living a lie and all the decisions you’ve made in the past indeed had wrong foundations. Well, that can’t be true, and even if it is there is not much you can do about it now, can you?

What you can do is start looking at things more objectively. When you do get a feeling about something, experience it, acknowledge it, but don’t rely on it completely. Get past it before you act on it. This can really help you to see the world more clearly, and take decisions not just based on your feelings, but also on the truth that is actually out there. This has certainly helped me to see things more clearly for quite sometime now. I hope it helps you too.

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