Relationship between thoughts and emotions

Do thoughts trigger emotions, or vice versa?

Let’s look at an example that we all commonly experience. We often ponder how long forgotten memories suddenly come to mind. We then contemplate the emotions that come with those memories. Consequentially, we attribute that memory and the thought around it as the root cause of our emotional state. While, in fact it is quite the opposite! Our emotional states activate memories that closely align with them. How? We can understand this causality from the analogy of a computer.

A memory is simply data stored inside neurons connected by neural pathways in our brain along with some metadata (emotions), much like a file on a computer. It takes a trigger (double click) to open a file on a computer. Similarly, it takes an electrical signal to pass through the neuron’s pathway in which that memory is stored for it to surface. 

Our emotional state acts as a trigger for the electrical impulse to pass through a certain pathway.

Understanding this sequential flow of emotions and thoughts, will lead us to the next question… What triggers our emotional state?