Is there a difference between emotions and feelings?

Emotions are instinctive—like disgust when you smell B.O.
Unless it’s a hockey bag.

Mental fitness means recognizing this.
Faced with a big moment, fear is the instinctive emotion.
The feeling? Panic.

We use feelings to explain away emotions we don’t want:
😳 Unprocessed embarrassment → Shame & hiding
😨 Avoided fear → Anxiety & worry
🤢 Disgust → Judgment & condemnation

These books explain it well:
📖 Emotional Agility – Susan David
📖 High Performance Habits – Brendon Burchard
📖 The Mountain is You – Brianna Wiest

How do you take action?
👀 Pay attention to strong reactions.

We often cheat ourselves by labeling them as unfixable traits.
Identify your pattern:
1️⃣ The trigger
2️⃣ The basic emotion
3️⃣ The feeling attached to it

Angry? Your thoughts attack others.
Shut down? Your thoughts attack yourself.
Frozen? “I’m screwed.”

Why does this help?
1️⃣ The loop becomes predictable—you know it ends.
2️⃣ You interrupt the feelings before they become distractions.

Change the meaning, change the feeling:
👉 Pressure is a privilege.
👉 Struggles mean I’m growing.

Let’s change the conversation to mental fitness.
I can help—with a keynote, training, group session, or one-on-one coaching.