How does the brain decide "what" thought to attach to a feel...

A feeling (an emotion) is a body sensation swiftly followed by a thought. So swiftly that, without practice, they seem to come at the same time. In fact, without practice, it’s hard to see that’s what they are. We just call them “sadness,” “joy,” “anger,” and so on.

We don’t yet have an answer from neuroscience. The best I can do is give you an anecdotal answer based on my years of meditative introspection. (I meditate for two hours every day.) For what it’s worth, I’ve heard many other longterm meditators give similar answers.

I’m really confused as to why “what” is in quotes, so it’s possible I misunderstand the question.

Hello, I have a question about astral projection. I started to get interested in this a little while after my mum passed in april. I thought I may be able to see her and speak with her if I managed to achieve astral projection. Since this interest, every time i sleep on my back I go into sleep paralysis. However, I cant progress into astral projection because it is very scary for me as I feel like I'm suffocating when this happens. I panic and force myself to wake up. This only ever happened about once a year before this. It sometimes lasts a long time. This has happened about 3 times per week since my mum died, as mentioned on a previous post. I no longer try to go into it anymore(due to the suffocating feeling), but it still happens. I read that sleep paralysis is the pathway to astral projection. Why has this started to happen so frequently since simply taking an interest in it? Is this connected to the afterlife? I am concerned about it as I now cannot seem to stop this happening. Could it be my mum trying to communicate? Im asking due to more knowledge around this in this group.

The thought seems to be the mind’s attempt to interpret the body sensation. “Oh, there are tears running down my cheeks. I must be sad …”

When thoughts aren’t reflections of sensations (e.g. a thought about you’ve felt in your body, seen, heard, or imagined feeling, seeing, or hearing), they are reflections on other thoughts. We often have long chains of thoughts about thoughts about thoughts about thoughts… An example might be “… and the reason I’m sad is …”

How does the brain decide "what" thought to attach to a feeling?

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