There is a lot of verbal confusion with feelings. Feelings include both physical sensations (sensation of touch or sensation of cold — the so-called external feelings), and emotional, internal feelings.
A feeling of joy or sadness, a feeling of fear, a feeling of pride or a feeling of love…
External senses are sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing, informing us about the events around us, about what is happening in the outside world. These senses have their source of sensation from the sense organs of the body, from the receptors of the visual, olfactory, tactile, and so on. However, if sensations are elementary givens for us: the sensation of light or color, warmth or cold, sweet or bitter, then feelings give us complete images: we see the face of a child, and not just a collection of color spots, we perceive a melody, not just a collection of sounds of different pitches.
Once again: external senses are primary perceptions that create an image, a picture of an external situation based on the processing of sensations from the senses. Attention in this case is turned outward.
External senses are different from internal senses, which have no receptors in the body. There is a feeling of uncertainty, but there are no receptors for confidence or uncertainty anywhere in the body. There is a feeling of gratitude, but gratitude (as well as tenderness, shame, sadness or admiration) has no bodily receptors.
It is the presence or absence of bodily receptors that is the main criterion that distinguishes external and internal feelings.
Only metaphorically can one say that inner feelings come from the sense organs of the soul—from the striving or agitated body, from the living face, and especially from the eyes, the mirror of the soul. Here — lively speech with rich intonations, warm words and responsive breathing. The sense organs of the soul always have the body and its expressive movements as their source, but they become internal feelings only after they have been placed by introverted attention into the inner world and comprehended as something living, living in the soul.
Men more often trust external feelings, women allow themselves to immerse themselves in the fairy tale of inner feelings more often.
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When the palms hug the baby’s head, you can catch your sensations, or you can catch your feelings. With attentive palms, a mother can measure the temperature of a child, or maybe feel and convey tenderness.
When the doctor feels the patient’s body, he is guided by his external senses. When lovers meet in kisses, their attention is introverted and perceives not just the warmth and softness of the lips, but the love and intimacy that live in their inner world.
The outer senses tell us about the outer world, the inner senses tell us about the inner world. External feelings tell us about reality, internal ones create a fairy tale for us.