Do our feelings change based on our whole lives experiences?

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It’s a good practice to remember that emotions are a lower faculty, more animalistic.

And the faculties that are closest to God are our intellect and our will.

And over time we can learn to tease out what our “motives for action” are…are we pursuing the highest good for the highest motive (love of God or mere love of feelings we sometimes get).

One hears this sort of thing all the time…“we’ve fallen out of love”.

That’s a sign of immature, surface level, emotional love, not the sign of true love.
 
Perhaps it’s just down to genetic differences.

I’ll love the way I feel is best, I’m sure God will understand.
 
The research suggests that people tend to have an inborn “set point” for happiness, to which they rebound after positive or negative experiences. So, a death in the family will bring a person low, and experiencing a success will bring a person high, but after the dust settles, the person sort of goes back to their general level of happiness.

But I would have to say that a person who had a low-conflict existence would be generally happier with life and be more optimistic than a person who had trial after trial.

But I’ve seen outliers, too, people who pulled themselves up from a bad beginning, or people who’s lives aren’t actually so bad, but complain all the time.
 
Cutting yourself off from emotions can lead to illness, it’s not a good idea. We weren’t given emotions for no reason. I think we should guide them but not dismiss them altogether, very unwise imo.
 
Our feelings change as we wish them to change, we are masters of our feelings (unless one has an illness or disorder).
 
We are the aggregate of our experiences, so I would say Yes.
 
That’s called relativism. I think therefore I am. We are not the source of truth, however.
 
No one is suggesting “cutting oneself off from emotions”…I am suggesting we don’t let our intellect and will be led around by our emotions.

Emotions must serve the good…when they don’t they need to be tempered.
 
STT said:
We all know that our feeling changes from time to time. I am wondering if our feelings are related to our whole lives experiences. Genetic also could affect our feelings but lets put that aside. So aren’t we machines when it comes to feelings?
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ST T I am not sure of your age but assume you are young. We do not grow emotionally and spiritually unless we have life experiences that include grief, joy, and everything in between. When young, we tend to react more quickly and passionately, young males tending towards violence in many instances. As we age, we grow cooler heads (hopefully)
 
I think Our Lord showed emotions, he was upset when His friend died, He was angry on occasion etc.

St Pio was also prone to show emotions habitually.

I’m not a relativist at all. I am against relativism. I am also not a cold fish devoid of emotion because I am frightened of showing my emotions. Passion can be very useful if channelled creatively and I have no intention of discarding that energy which is a powerful tool.

When I’m very old and my hormone levels have dropped to such an extent that I rarely feel any emotion then I’ll remember fondly my youth at sixty three and thank God that at least he let me feel alive for a few decades.
 
Well as I have said repeatedly, emotions (as a faculty) are good, because God created them…but b/c of the effects of Original Sin (which Our Lord didn’t suffer from, but you and I do, hourly) we lost what’s called “perfect dominion” over our emotions. We have to struggle to keep them ordered to the good.

And they can slowly or even quickly become disordered, and no longer serve the good.

We exist to serve and please God, not ourselves.
 
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Roseeurekacross said:
STT I am not sure of your age but assume you are young. We do not grow emotionally and spiritually unless we have life experiences that include grief, joy, and everything in between. When young, we tend to react more quickly and passionately, young males tending towards violence in many instances. As we age, we grow cooler heads (hopefully)
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I am 50+. So you agree that our feeling is the result of life experience. I was wondering how they could change.
 
‘Define feeling please.’ It would be beneficial to define it in terms of your specific culture, so state that too please.
I am discussing emotional maturity and spiritual growth.
 
Feeling: an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced.
 
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