I don’t like the word ‘feel’, personally. “I feel this, I feel that,” honestly, it drives me insane because truth & logic often contradicts feeling. I like logical things, but even logic isn’t logical, so I’ve really got to get over myself. But even with my severe dislike of feelings, I’m still going to have to base this observation on them.
The setting: I was brushing my teeth after I had taken a shower, and I wondered. What comes first: feeling, or thought? How are they connected, if connected at all? Directly? Does feeling cause thought, or does thought cause feeling? Maybe both, & it’s a chain reaction. Or is it indirect? Is there something that happens in between that process to form thought or feeling? Or are they completely disconnected & should not be associated with one another? Well, clearly they are connected, because feeling can cause thought. E.g., I didn’t think about this whole enigma because I didn’t feel anything about it. I felt that there was something in this that was worth thinking about, even if that feeling is just gratification from understanding it. I have a feeling that there isn’t, but that can further my point. I can ignore that feeling, & continue with my feeling of something worth finding out, or I can go further with the other feeling & go on with how useless this is to think about.
But! Thoughts also cause feelings. Y’know, I don’t like the word ‘feel’ because it gives me a bad feeling. It tells me someone is gonna pull some bull out of their cheeks, & they shouldn’t be listened to. Of course, I fight that feeling because I have another feeling telling me that the other feeling is bad to have.
But does that mean they should be associated? I'm not sure. But if they're so closely related, they're bound to be associated, right? Is there something that happens between thoughts & feelings that I’m missing? Is there a whole process? I suppose I did answer my first question in the beginning. Not everything needs to be a one-sided thing—thoughts cause feelings, and feelings cause thoughts. But if a creature has feelings, does that automatically give it thoughts? Or if something has thoughts, could it be possible that it doesn’t have feelings? I think the latter is impossible. But what about the former? I guess it would depend on the type of feeling.
We are a trinity—that's common sense. We have a body that can feel & experience physical matters, we have a spirit that can feel & experience spiritual matters, and I don’t know what in the world our soul would feel. Do we even feel our souls? What in the world?
Screw this, now I have another issue. Is our soul connected to our mind & mental state? The Google says, “The relationship between the soul and mental processes is a long-standing topic in philosophy…” Great.
St. Augustine describes the soul as the “house” of the mind--& I believe everything that man says ‘cause I’ve never witnessed anything of his being wrong. After all, it lines up with the Bible—that’s probably why he’s a saint. But I suppose what he said makes sense. I've always thought our soul housed our spirit, but his way makes more sense. If our body is what we can see, & our spirit is our animating force, then I suppose our soul would house our mind, i.e., thoughts & feelings.
King David repeatedly says in the psalms, "Bless/praise The Lord, O my soul." & when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26:38, He said, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death." Both of these verses (among others, but I'm too lazy to put any more in) feed into our soul housing our mind & emotions.
So yes, we do feel our soul. & I think our soul is what differentiates us from other creatures--I think that is what causes thought. If there is a process from feeling to thought, or vice versa, I think it has something to do with our trinity--body, soul, & spirit.
