Emotional Reasoning – Thinking with feelings

Emotional reasoning is the way of the mind to convince us of something that is not actually true. Example being, I feel so depressed and worn out, this must be the worst place to work in, therefore I hate my job.

Emotional reasoning is the gap between feelings and evidence. It is like saying to self, “I feel, therefore it is.”

Emotions outweigh evident based reality

A victim of emotional reasoning assumes his emotions or feelings to be true and the driving force of their lives. They believe Feelings are facts. For instance, a person might feel he is not intelligent and will subsequently base upon the feeling and believe that he is unintelligent. If a person feels for an instant that he is ugly or unattractive, he will continue to believe that he is ugly.

A victim of emotional reasoning is usually under the sway of emotions. So naturally, motivation takes a back seat.

For instance, if a person while getting up in the morning feels lazy and assumes his feeling of laziness to be indeed there, he might end up being in bed and missing office and his work.

Emotional reasoning can make the depressed more depressed.

Depression, if it is not a major chemical imbalance, is negative thoughts and if a depressed person tries to reason emotionally, then the intensity of depression goes a few notches up.

For instance, a depressed person usually feels he is good for nothing and his life had been a failure. NOW just imagine if the same depressed person tries to emotionally validate his feeling of not being good for anything…

It is ok to emotionally reason, once in a while.

It is natural to emotionally reason once in a while. I believe one should have the ‘right size of emotions’ to look at things. In fact, the best approach is the fine balance between emotions and evidence based reality BUT if you constantly reason emotionally, it is time to take your emotions for a reality check.

Feelings are not Facts: Cognition Behavioral Therapy helps…

To overcome emotional reasoning, Cognitive Behavioral therapists ask people to jot down their emotions regularly and frequently, cross check them for their accuracy and then substitute the negative thoughts with constructive thoughts and affirmations.

Emotional Reasoning is a cognition distortion; an error in thinking. Self help works in addressing the issue BUT it is advisable to consult an expert to correct this deep rooted thinking pattern.