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Where do Emotions Come From?

Shalaka Tambe

Emotional Awareness is fundamental to building Emotional Intelligence and experiencing a Harmonious life. And to build Higher Emotional Awareness we first need to build more awareness about where and how do emotions come from? What part of our body is responsible for our thoughts and our emotions?

Emotions are Both a Physical and Mental in nature. Emotions are the Chemistry of our body as well as they as a mental construct. Emotions are Partly physical and part Mental or psychological in nature. In our previous article we saw what are emotions and what is the difference between Emotions, Feelings, and Moods. You can refer to the blog from the link shared below.

Emotions are our Mind and body’s response to any trigger or stimuli. The stimuli can be an event, a situation, a person, a memory, or an experience. How we think about these stimuli causes emotions to surface and arise in our mind and body

Our Physical wellbeing is influenced by our Emotional and Mental well-being. From an Indian Philosophical perspective, Our physical body is just one aspect of our overall being. Our Body is made of three aspects. Physical, Psychological and Spiritual. So Let us first consciously look at the concept of – Body, Mind and Soul

As per the Ancient Vedantic teachings a human body is three-fold in nature. It is called as the Treya Sharira or the Doctrine of Three Bodies.

A Vedantic Perspective about the Three-fold Nature of Human Body

As per our Ancient Wisdom, In Vedic Teachings it is explained that a Human being is composed of three bodies (Treya Sharira)- Sthula Sharira, Sukshma Sharira and Karana Sharira.

  • Sthula Sharira – Gross Physical Body, which eats, sleeps, breathes, moves
  • Sukshma Sharira – Subtle body of mind, emotions, and vital energies
  • Karana Sharira – The Causal body, the seed of Sthula & Sukshma body

Sthula Sharira – Gross Physical Body

It is the Gross Physical body that eats, sleeps, drinks, breathes and interacts with the physical world. This Sthula Sharira is made from gross matter and five elements Air, Water, Fire, Earth, and Space (ether). Because
this gross body is visible to us and others, it is the most observed body. And most of our lives we are aware and focused only on this visible Physical body more than the other two bodies.

Sukshma Sharira – Subtle Body

It is the subtle body of Mind – Thoughts, Emotions, Ego, and Vital Life Energies. It is also called as the Astral Body in the West. The Subtle body is made of two parts – Manas (Sensory Mind) and the Buddhi (Wisdom or
Intellect). The mind gives rise to all feelings, emotions, thoughts, ideas. And the Buddhi is the intellect or Wisdom that can guide the Mind through decisions, choices, it guides the behaviour which stems from the thoughts,
emotions, feelings. Therefore, the Subtle body is also called as psychological body. And this subtle body is unique to every person. As per Vedanta, the Sukshma Sharira is the link between Sthula Sharira (Gross body) and
Karana Sharira (Causal or Spiritual Body). It unites the two during Birth.

Karana Sharira – Causal Body

The Karana Sharira is the seed or cause of Sthula & Sukshma Sharira. Our gross body can be seen and experienced by us and others, the Subtle Body can be only experienced by the individual, and the Causal body cannot be
experienced even by the individual. It is only in the form of energy, in the form of possibility. It is the potential form of us which is not yet manifested. The Sthula, and Sukshma Sharira are our ideas of who we are, what
we are, how we are. All these ideas of self, are created by the Mind. Whereas the Karana Sharira holds the source of our true potential, the possibilities of what we can be. Thus, it is more Spiritual in nature.

Emotions arise from the Sukshma Sharira

Sukshma Sharira (Subtle Body) is made up of Manas (Sensory Mind) and Buddhi (Intellect and Wisdom). The Sensory Mind is responsible for our thoughts, emotions, and feelings. Thereby, subtle body refers to the psychological body that
manages physiological activities. Every person has a unique subtle body that is built with impressions, experiences, karma, of that person. Therefore, even though every person has the nine Basic Rasas or Emotions Inherent in them, their
expression of these emotions is unique to their own experience. Our Thoughts about any event, situation, any person trigger an emotional response that is unique to us. So, thoughts lead to emotions and emotions lead to behaviour.
However, it is also true that thoughts and emotions are intertwined in a cycle, Thoughts lead to emotions and Emotions lead to thoughts. The concept of Manas and Buddhi and its function in our Experience of Life, can be dealt in more
detail in the Pancha Kosha Concept from the Upanishads. We will explore this concept in more detail in our next article.

Shalaka Tambe

Emotional Harmony Coach

Each of this body needs Nourishment. We all develop a fair bit of understanding about how to nourish the physical body. We know the distinction between what is healthy food and what is unhealthy food. Over the period we develop our own
specific understanding about what suits our own body and what does not. But we seldom pay attention to our Subtle body and Causal body. Anything that we cannot see, cannot touch, cannot experience in the physical form, we tend to remain
unaware about it. And eventually over time we might also forget about it. And everything that is happening in those subtle bodies happens without our knowledge, our awareness, our understanding. And we seldom develop our understanding
about what suits & does not suit our Subtle Body & Causal Body. So, there is a need to become Conscious and More Aware about the other two bodies which in real sense determine how we experience our life itself. This is what
Emotional & Mental Awareness is. And we are going to explore how we can Increase our Emotional Well-being through higher Emotional Awareness during these nine months of pregnancy. We will focus on the Mental Wellbeing part in next
chapter.

Do we Consciously feed the subtle body?

The answer is, rarely. The nourishment for our subtle body comes from nourishing our thoughts, our emotions, our feelings, our Values, Beliefs, our principles, our influences, our knowledge, our level of awareness. Throughout the nine
months of Pregnancy, the Mother’s body is the adobe for the baby growing inside her. All three bodies of her are entwined with the three bodies of the Baby. What you feed to your body you become. When you eat junk food, which is
momentarily very satisfying to the taste buds, you end up feeding unhealthy food which then has long term impacts on your health. Similarly, when you end up feeding limiting beliefs, conflicting values, unhealthy influences devoid of
knowledge and awareness, you end up feeling unsettled, sad, lost, anxious and get caught in the spiral of Emotions which then impacts your whole experience of life. And during the nine months of Pregnancy, it is not just impacting your
life, but also the life that is taking shape inside the womb. So, it is extremely crucial that we put the focus on elevating our emotional awareness and consciously and proactively nourish our Sukshma Shareer – Subtle body – The Mind-
our thoughts, our emotions.

The 3 Bodies

Their Nature

Their Nourishment
Sthula Shareer Physical body
Gross Physical Body – That which eats, sleeps, Breathes, Moves
Good food (diet or saatwik ahaar), Exercise, Lifestyle Choices
Sukshma Shareer Subtle body
Subtler than physical body – The Mind, thoughts, emotions, vital energies
Our Values, Beliefs, Thoughts, Ideas, Principles (Saatvik Achaar – Vichaar), Good Reading, Good Company, Good Influence
Karana Shareer Causal body
Subtler than Sukshma – The seed of Sthula and Sukshma
Meditative practices & Spiritual practices, Brining Purpose and Meaning to our activities