| Sometimes, it can be hard to tell the difference between emotions and thoughts. A good rule of thumb to distinguish between the two is that emotions are typically expressed in only one word, like happy, mad, glad, sad. Thoughts, in contrast, typically involve a few words (a phrase or sentence) like “I am worthless,” “my future looks hopeless.” Another way to differentiate thoughts and feelings is that you can typically make a face that matches an emotion or guess what someone is feeling by the look on their face. That would be much harder with a thought. |
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Be patient with yourself if you find it hard initially to distinguish between the two. Like learning any new skill, it takes time and practice. The emotion wheel below provides a list of feelings of varying intensities to help you identify what you’re feeling.  |