“I’m just overthinking, I’ll be fine. I just have to get my mind off this.”
“I don’t know why I did it, I wasn’t thinking!”
“I feel so betrayed!”

These three phrases are the battle drum, war cry of high school teenagers across the globe. As often as they are said, no one ever realizes how paradoxical they are. The first claims that their thoughts are controlling their emotions in the first place by diving too deep into a subject, then claiming their thoughts can climb them out of that hole. Then, the second thought counteracts that and claims that it is their emotions that made a decision, not thought. The third is an entire paradox within itself! The subject claims to feel betrayal, when really, betrayal is a label that your mind thinks about a situation.

The fact that these two opposites have been expressed at doing the other’s job, a question was raised in my mind. Can you control your emotions by your thoughts? And, on the contrary, can emotions control your thoughts? It is understood that the only way to truly find the answer is to conduct an extensive scientific experiment using high-quality technology, but the idea of Thoughts vs. Emotions raises a great open ended debate that confuses most people, and has intrigued me my whole life. Everything branches off this concept. Nobody thinks racism is good, but some are controlled by their emotions against other races. Nobody feels kneeling is a good thing, until they think it raises awareness for social justice. It’s a two-way street I’m excited to explore. 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/pieces-mind/201306/learning-thoughts-and-emotions