Thoughts vs. emotions?

[JL****]

In one of the mindfulness courses I took, there was a exercise to identify and bucket your thoughts vs sensations vs emotions (feelings).  I am having difficulty differentiating thoughts vs. emotions as they're so tightly intertwined. Any tips or suggestions?

[Tine]

@JLMancke This is such a great (and challenging) exercise. We use this in MBSR.
And you are absolutely right: thoughts, emotions and sensations are intertwined - continuously fueling each other.
And I think that's the exercise right there.
Feeling the emotion in the body might be heat in the chest, a sense of weakness with which we can sit for a while thinking to ourselves, "lot's of frustration and disappointment is here". This way, we can sit with the emotion, be present to it and allowing it to pass through the body. When the thoughts come in, we can witness them and let them go. If we engage in the thoughts, the emotion will get stronger and longer. The thoughts are the story we tell ourselves about the event, the justifications, the arguing in our heads, the generalizations.
Once the heat of the emotion is over, we probably have more constructive thoughts again addressing the situation, which caused the feeling more wisely.

[JL****]

Thank you Tine!!! Really helpful!