Emotions aren’t thoughts in the mind; they’re experiences in the body. Drawing on a broad range of research and expert perspectives, several core qualities of emotion emerge.
Try a quick 2-minute test: compare these eight verifiable qualities of emotion with AI & search results, and see how they measure up against the materials that teachers and providers truly need.
Note: In the Substack app, click the play button at the top of a post to start narration. To adjust audio speed, tap the playback bar at the bottom of your screen.
Emotions aren’t thoughts in the mind; they’re experiences in the body.
Emotions are not merely thoughts confined to the mind. We experience them in our bodies, which is why they’re ‘psychobiological’, i.e. they drive our biology. Emotions are direct, often visceral, feelings in the body. The stronger the emotion, the stronger the feeling. The heart-racing blush of new love; the ‘butterflies’ in the stomach with anxiety; the palm-tingling, sweating, dry-mouth facing an audience for the first time; the rush of nausea when feeling disgusted, are all familiar sensations for us. And of course, the intensity of the fight or flight response to fear or fright. We are so emotionally fine-tuned that we also use somatic language to describe events in our lives – feeling heartbroken, quivering with excitement, having a gut feeling about something or being sick to the pit of one’s stomach.
Synopsis of this Post
Emotion is experienced in the body. We feel waves of energy and sensations that arise, peak, and pass. What’s happening in these moments? Drawing on a wide range of research and expert perspectives, several core qualities of emotion become evident. Try a quick and simple test: compare these eight verifiable qualities of emotion with AI and search engine results, and see how they measure up against the materials that teachers and providers truly need.
Emotions: A Structured Approach to this Vast and Vital Subject for Teachers and Providers
Here you’ll find excerpts from our lesson on Emotions & Feelings, where we examine diverse perspectives on the core qualities of emotions, and common ways in which people may have a limited or underdeveloped understanding of them
For the subject of Emotional Well-Being as a whole, get an overview and context here. The Research & Teaching Guide included there has links to full lessons, as well as Substack posts featuring selected excerpts.
2-Minute Test: AI and Establishment Sources vs. Independent Human-Led Research
As part of exploring the information below on such a vital human subject as our emotions, I invite you to try a simple 2-minute test comparing AI and search engine results with the materials I propose that teachers and providers actually need. I use AI as a support tool, and my decades-long experience in tech and research allow me to quickly recognize its strengths and limitations and when the controllers are changing things behind the scenes. My purpose is to help providers access what they truly need to make a meaningful difference in their own lives and in the lives of those they serve. This test is a way to show you some of the things I see.
Type “core qualities of emotion” or any other queries you can think of into AI tools and search engines. Type your query with the intention of building a foundational understanding of emotions with clients that will support your experience and the empowering services you want to provide.
Then scroll down to the Core Qualities list below, drawn from more than 100 carefully curated, verifiable sources and shaped by over 15 years of independent research, providing insight that establishment sources cannot be relied to report on.
If you have a bit more time to spend, compare the AI and search results you receive with the reference list we provide. Initial AI responses almost always draw from just a couple of sources. With more deliberate prompting and demands for citations, you can reach additional material — but even then, some links lead to dead ends, and there’s always a dearth of sources that are invaluable for providers and teachers.
I’ve been able to make that kind of differentiation possible after more than 30 years of working online. I was a marketing manager at Microsoft in the 1990s, and by 1996, I was responsible for a section of microsoft.com designed for corporate executives. Before that, when the Internet first emerged publicly, its value was limited to helping you find contacts. You would still have to call or email the person or business for any actual information. Then when more content got put online, search engines became progressively better, transforming access to information. But within a few years, the searches were being manipulated to meet various institutional and corporate revenue objectives. Having worked so closely with these tools on a daily basis, I’ve found these stages quite obvious — only to realize that it can take years for those less immersed to catch on. I expect it will take time for us all to navigate and respond effectively to the technology surge. When it comes to AI, this 30-year perspective highlights some of its more subtle strengths and limitations. As a result, I use AI tools in very deliberate ways that enhance my ability to help you provide real value, and not harm.
Our work is designed to expand how people source and engage with information in ways that support real-world, human optimization. It offers an alternative to academic posturing and disconnected facts by prioritizing practical relevance, applied insight, and lived validity.
Measurable & Essential
An Emotion is a Physiological Event
If you ask someone, “What are you feeling?” they’ll typically notice a vague mix of sensations — thoughts, memories, and bodily signals, some of which they may not have been consciously aware of before focusing on them. That internal mix will then be called excited, afraid, irritated, sad, optimistic, peaceful, unnerved, touched, worried, or some other feeling. (See more than 250 ways to describe feelings here: Feelings List.)
The terms feelings and emotions are often used interchangeably, but when a distinction is made, it’s usually this:
An emotion is a physiological event with measurable biochemical activity.
A feeling is the name and subjective interpretation we assign to that experience.
In other words, we can suppress feelings — meaning we don’t consciously acknowledge being sad or angry. Yet the underlying emotional processes — the chemistry and physiology — continue regardless of our awareness. This is significant. Understanding what’s happening in the body, both chemically and physiologically, is essential and will be explored further in this series, including research showing why “issues live in the tissues.”
A Foundation of Mental Health and Well-Being
Our relationship with emotion forms a core foundation of overall well-being and is a key aspect of mental health — which encompasses our emotional landscape, patterns of thinking, self-talk, resilience, self-worth, and trust.
In this series, we’ve focused specifically on emotions. However, depending on your learning or teaching goals, it may be helpful to explore mental health more broadly. See the Well-Being Hub for a visual overview of the full scope of these subjects plus more, including stress, trauma, and the subconscious.
Emotions are Not Abstract Ideas — They are Measurable Experiences
Candace Pert, PhD, ushered in a sea change in how emotions and the mind-body connection are understood, grounding these concepts in biochemistry. Through her life’s work in scientific research, we have a verifiable understanding of how emotional chemistry is integral to the functioning of the entire body.
Pert brought Western scientific measurement to the study of emotions by illuminating the profound role of neuropeptides — chemical messengers (ligands) that circulate throughout the body — which were famously termed “molecules of emotion.”
Her research challenged prevailing Western scientific models of brain–body function, which had overlooked the role of emotions altogether.
As a rigorously trained and widely published scientist, Pert was committed to precision and reproducible results — persisting within a predominantly reductionist scientific culture. Yet she was equally a holistic, multidisciplinary thinker, and her contributions ultimately influenced a wide range of disciplines.
We cover much more on Pert and her contributions in Physiology of Emotion.
Key takeaways from Pert’s research in Molecules of Emotion:
Emotions are not merely abstract ideas — they are real, measurable processes within the body.
While the brain plays a central role in emotions, it does not confine emotion to a single location; rather, emotions involve widespread biochemical signaling throughout the body.
Core Qualities
Emotion is experienced in the body. We sense waves of energy and sensations that arise and pass. If we pause, close our eyes, and pay attention, we may notice pressure, pounding, heat, heaviness, numbness, tingling, lightness, or spaciousness. What’s happening here?
Drawing on a broad range of research and expert perspectives, several core qualities of emotion emerge:
In the body: Emotions are experienced in the body and involve measurable biochemical and physiological processes. [Candace B. Pert PhD and Richard C. Miller PhD]
Intertwined with the whole body’s physiology: Emotional chemistry is deeply integrated with whole-body functioning, including breathing, gut physiology, cardiovascular activity, and more. [Candace B. Pert PhD and Dan Hurley]
Psychological and environmental influences: Emotions arise not only from thoughts and psychological stress, but from a litany of environmental factors such as mineral deficiencies, electromagnetic frequencies, and toxins such as heavy metals. [James Lyons-Weiler PhD and JABFM and Dr. Tess Lawrie MBBCh, PhD and many more here]
Automatic: They occur without conscious effort or control. [Paul Ekman PhD]
Present-centered: They happen in the now moment, but are often associated with past experiences and conditioning. [Paul Ekman PhD]
In motion: Emotions are dynamic — they arise, shift, and dissipate. [Jill Bolte Taylor PhD]
Neutral at core: At their essence, emotions are neutral energy. [Hilary Stokes PhD & Kim Ward PhD]
Informative: Emotions carry messages that can guide awareness, insight, and understanding. [Richard C. Miller PhD and Vironika Tugaleva]
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