"Language is an abstract representation - an attempt to capture something intangible through sounds or symbols. However, the real feeling-that inner, direct experience-is something that takes place on a level language can hardly approach. Our feelings are the result of a complex interplay of bioelectrical and neuroelectrical processes. Now, let's examine some of these embodied activities. At the neural level of the brain and nervous system: Electrical impulses race through neurons."
"At the neural level of the brain and nervous system: Electrical impulses race through neurons. Neurotransmitters run through synapses. Some of them, like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, transmit signals that influence emotions and sensations as they occur. At the level of body systems: Every cell in our body has bioelectric and sensory activity in its biomembranes and their associated organelles. The complex fluxes of ionic and other cellular charged particles play a role in wound healing and cellular development."
"A Fundamental Characteristic of Consciousness The brain interprets physical stimuli as feelings by translating them into electrical signals. When we look at words, we see what they represent. Words like "sadness," "longing," and "ecstasy" are merely symbols. They can never fully capture the unique physical and mental experiences associated with them. Trying to describe a flash of lightning with a pencil sketch is like trying to describe it."
Human experience routinely exceeds the expressive capacity of language, creating a gap between inner sensations and external words. Language functions as an abstract symbolic system that cannot fully replicate embodied feelings. Feelings arise from complex bioelectrical and neuroelectrical processes across neurons, neurotransmitters, and whole-body cellular activity. Electrical impulses and neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine shape moment-to-moment emotional experience. At the cellular level, biomembrane activity and ionic fluxes influence healing, development, and bodily perception. The brain translates physical stimuli into electrical patterns labeled by words, yet those symbols remain incomplete reflections of lived experience.
Read at Psychology Today
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