Emotions and Logic

When I was at counseling the other day, my counselor interrupted me and asked, “This is kind of random, but what’s your Meyers-Briggs?” When I told her it was ENFP, she was surprised. “Your thought process is so logical, I would think that you were more of an ENTP than an ENFP. Maybe now that you’ve spent so many months analyzing and practicing building arguments, you’re more Thinking than Feeling now.” This seemed to fall in line with what a lot of my friends have said to me recently as well — that I was thinking more and more logically and intentionally, operating on a string of reasonings rather than focusing on how I feel.
So I went home, took the Meyers-Briggs test again — and got ENFP again with a whopping 81% in Feeling vs 19% in Thinking. 81%! I know that I should take personality tests with a grain of salt, but 81% is a pretty drastic percentage compared to what people describe me. I realized that I had selected many empathetic options in the test, and that was perhaps the main reason why I was assigned Feeling rather than Thinking, since empathy involves experiencing strong feelings.
However, this suggests a rather common conception that many people have: do emotions and logic directly oppose each other?
Let’s talk about that!
How do we function emotionally and logically?
There exists an EBTEA model (that I stole from a book) that details the process of many decisions we make:
Experience → Beliefs → Thoughts → Emotions → Actions
Depending on our beliefs which are shaped by experiences, we have certain thoughts that provoke certain emotions, which ultimately lead to our actions. For example, because I have heard of stories where people fell to their deaths from heights, if I believe that heights will inevitably lead to my death, I will think of ways to avoid heights as much as possible, which will lead to emotions of anxiety, which may lead into actions of avoidance. Thus, if you have positive beliefs shaped by positive experiences, they will lead into positive thoughts, emotions, and resulting actions. Likewise, if you have negative beliefs shaped by negative experiences, they will lead into negative thoughts, emotions, and resulting actions. Regardless of who you are, you will inevitably carry out this process all the way through without fail.
What exactly is emotion and logic?
Well, let’s first define truth, since we’ll be encountering this a lot in this writing:
Truth (n.): in accordance with fact or reality.
Okay, easy. We will talk more about what truth consists of, later on.
Emotion (n.): a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others.
Emotions reveal the condition of your physical, mental, and/or spiritual state. “Hangry” is a thing, because anger often stems from the irritating feeling of being physically deprived of food. A person getting a massage might be happy because because their body is relaxed and in a comfortable condition. Someone who just went through a breakup might cry out of sadness because they lost someone who had loved and supported them. Emotions act as an alarm for something that stems deeper within, kind of like how physical pain tells the body that something is wrong.
Someone acting on the extreme end of emotional decision-making will make the perceived cause of their emotions = truth, albeit a self-defined truth. For example, if they feel annoyed because the professor gave them a B instead of an A, they will complain to everyone that the professor should not have given them a B, thus projecting their self-defined truth onto the people around them.
Logic (n.): reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity.
Logic acts as reasoning used to make and support decisions. Someone chose to go to a community college because it’s cheaper, and their family cannot afford fancier universities. Another person curses at a stranger, because the stranger bumped into them. Logic reveals why we do what we do.
Someone acting on the extreme end of logical decision-making can make literally any logic = truth, also resulting in a self-defined truth. They could use the fact that everyone ultimately dies to make an argument for not doing anything with their life. Another person can cheat on a significant other with the logic that he has the free will to do whatever he wants.
For some reason, emotions are often looked down upon in society. I never hear anyone priding themselves as an “emotional” thinker, but always as a “logical” thinker. Emotions imply vulnerability and weakness, while logic seems to describe strength and resiliency. Yet, you can see that while those who operate solely on emotions can cloud their vision of the truth, those who operate solely on logic can deceive themselves into believing literally anything as something true. Both forms of thinking operate on pride that seeks to justify personal gain.
Now, let’s get to why we’re really here. How do emotions and logic relate to each other?
Therefore, while people often pit emotions and logic against each other, in reality, emotions should spark introspection that results in more accurate logic. In other terms, the roles of emotions are designed to help you understand yourself better, and the logic that your emotions reveal helps you make better decisions. How does that happen you ask? It’s simple — let’s first begin working backwards from the EBTEA model:
Actions → Emotions → Thoughts → Beliefs → Experience
Unlike the other stages of this model, emotions are the most visible and obvious characteristics about yourself that help you learn more about who you are. Actions, thoughts, beliefs, and even experience are a lot harder to pinpoint than emotions. Emotions kind of act like physical sensation — both tell you the condition of your mind and/or body. So let’s begin the reflection model with emotions, our natural “smoke detectors”:
Emotions (why?) → Thoughts (why?) → Beliefs (why?) → Experience
The arrows between these stages also represent questions that are meant to provoke more thinking in the next stage. Using a simple example, I’m very sad. Why? Because I’m thinking about how my dog passed away. Why? Because I believe that my dog played an important role in my life. Why? Because she was always by my side, even when I was having hard times.
Having followed through this model, you’ve recognized that an important figure had been removed from your life. By understanding where your emotions come from, you’re able to understand yourself better.
We explored emotions, but what about logic?
While our current reflection diagram works well in demonstrating introspection, there’s just something about the model that seems missing. Right now, the model explains “reasoning” but it does not explain “logic.” Reasoning is more of a personal argument, while logic represents a more universal stance that can also apply to others and not yourself. Just “experiences” lead to reasoning, but “truth” leads to logic.
Well, what is truth? I believe that the truth is God’s truth (as found through the Bible, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) — that He created “physical truth” (reality that you can see, touch, smell, hear, taste, and experience) such as the loss of a loved one, and gave us “abstract truth” (reality that you cannot visibly see, touch, smell, hear taste; otherwise known as mental and spiritual truth) such as the command to love your neighbor more than yourself. Fun fact — emotions can never be wrong! I group them under “physical truth,” because feelings are something that someone experiences and no one can deny the reality of it. Perhaps the beliefs that fuel these emotions can be wrong, but never tell someone that they should not feel a certain way.
Even if you do not believe in a universal truth of sorts, we can still receive glimpses of “a truth” through experience, which is also why the older you become, the wiser you seem. Truth in the form of experience comes in all forms — but a truly effective source is community. This is a Johari Window, a framework developed by psychologists as an aid for understanding yourself:

The most desirable section of the window is “Open,” where information is known both to yourself and the community around you. There also exists a section called “Blind Spot,” where information is known only to your community! You probably didn’t think it was possible, but it’s true — others can know more about you than you know about yourself. While your emotions reveal the most about yourself to you, your actions reveal the most about yourself to the people around you, so listen to them when they confront you about it. This way, you can also gain sources of truth through the people around you as well!
Therefore, with emotions, we are able to understand ourselves better, but with logic that derives from truth, we are able to use this newfound information to make better decisions.
So how exactly does truth fit into this whole thing?
Truth often challenges your personal belief. You may think that what you believe aligns with the truth, but you’d be surprised if in reality it was the complete opposite. For example, this past summer I thought I had overcome my PTSD, but I found myself sobbing for over an hour in my workplace. I was so confused as to why this was happening to me — weren’t my triggers over? As I followed through the reflection model, I realized that my belief contrasted with the “physical truth” that I still had not disassociated my triggers. Believing this truth, I decided to take it easy and give myself more space. I had gained this bit of truth through experience. I was able to understand myself better, and by encountering the truth and recanting my previous belief that I had recovered, I was able to make a better decision for myself and the people around me.
Emotions (why?) → Thoughts (why?) → Beliefs vs Truth (in which aspects of it can be revealed through Experience)
Now, things are about to get a little complicated, but very important, so feel free to re-read.
I like to think of the struggle between beliefs and truth as a black box. First, input both your personal beliefs and the truth. Then, something happens in your mind — who knows what — which leads to one of 4 changes: a change in your belief, a change in your “truth” (if you don’t believe in a universal truth), changes in both your beliefs and truth, or no change at all — as long as the output results in your beliefs and truth matching up. When your beliefs and the truth line up, you have full access to sound logic to make your decisions off of. For example, you might believe that you are a failure, but the truth states that you are not, and that instead you are wonderfully and beautifully created. One of the two will have to change in order for you to go from making decisions off of your personal reasoning to making decisions off of logic — in this case, I hope it’s your belief that would change.
However, this process of wrestling with beliefs and truth is not easy at all and often long and strenuous — spanning from several months to a few years or even for the rest of your life. There is another reason why I call it a black box — no one can force you or expect you to make that connection between belief and truth, because it’s something only you can decide. In fact, the discrepancy between belief and truth very closely mirrors the dreaded “heart versus mind / emotions versus logic / why can’t I just not feel this way” battle, except I am saying that it’s not actually emotions you’re fighting against, but it’s your beliefs you’re struggling to rectify. Fun fact #2: the Hebrew word for heart is actually located in your mind!
All in all, the struggle between belief and truth is a complicated one, and usually does not just happen overnight, but over many, many nights. It’s not easy to suddenly believe or disbelieve something — it often takes a long time of extending grace to yourself and others as well as exposing yourself to the truth, which can be summarized as a simple equation: (grace + truth) / time.
Despite the struggle between your belief and the truth, when or if the two finally align, you can attain logic that can be used to make even better decisions for the future.
What makes it hard to go through this thought process?
This model is almost impossible to follow through without humility, which means that you are at peace with being wrong, with being weak, and with being unhappy, and are able to accept and extend grace. Pride (as portrayed in the above examples of extreme “emotional” thinking and extreme “logical” thinking) can very easily deceive yourself and steer yourself away from the truth, convincing you to make certain conclusions about yourself that are not true. Furthermore, with humility, you understand that everyone is different. People will be at different stages of their lives, with different understandings of their emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and the truth — based on the experiences they have personally gone through. Different trains of logic exist in different decisions made by different people.
Humility: Emotions (why?) → Thoughts (why?) → Beliefs vs Truth (in which aspects of it can be revealed through Experience)
The addition of humility also turns this model into a tool for empathy. If you see someone being emotional, instead of judging them, you wonder what kind of thoughts they might be thinking, and perhaps even what sort of beliefs that they hold. If they aren’t aware of the truth, maybe you can share it with them, following the Johari Window described above. However, if they are clearly aware of the truth and actively struggling with their beliefs and the truth, hold back. The more you try to blindly jam the truth into their mind while they are already wrestling, the more disoriented and resentful they can become. The process of reconciling their beliefs and the truth is for them and them alone to overcome.
So by the end of this, I hope you’ve learned a few things just as I have, including but not limited to:
- Emotions and logic should not work against each other, but help shed light on each other
- Emotions help you understand yourself better, which leads to logic that helps you make better decisions
- Emotions are not wrong
- The struggle between belief and truth is personal and complicated
- Humility is required for both healthy emotions and more accurate logic
- Both fuel empathy
Maybe you agree with my explanations, maybe you don’t agree with them — but regardless, I hope that you will continue to think more on how emotions and logic function in your life, and what that means for you. As for me, I’ll just continue to be that ENFP with an 81% in Feeling who also happens to be extraordinarily logical at the same time. 🙂
Originally published at alinayuuu.wordpress.com on September 3, 2018.
