Hi:

I'm glad there's some help to this. But really - it's not the words or definitions thatI think you're looking for.

Are you really having trouble EXPERIENCING feelings and emotions (or whatever words you want to use) or is the difficulty coming up with the right words?

That's actually a rhetorical question - you don't need to answer that or you may find yourself getting lost in analysis again.

I'll get to the question about "mental interpretation" but it might be better to get past this word definition thing.

You might start with sensations, and see if playing with that for awhile could help.

I did a lot of work in pain management, and it was amazing to me - having practiced yoga and meditation for many years - that it wasn't just a matter of finding words for it, but people often can feel only very small portions of their bodies - maybe I should use the word "can SENSE only small portions of their bodies."

I mean, I remember very gently putting my hands on a patient's left and right shoulders. Then I lifted one hand, and asked "Which should is my hand on now?" and they couldn't tell. I had my right hand on their right shoulder and they couldn't tell it was there.

Have you done progressive relaxation, or tried "yoga nidra" - these are profound educations in learning to FEEL or SENSE one's body.

If you did that every day for about 10-20 minutes for about a month, the next step would be this

Now that you can sense most areas of your body, start noticing, is this sensation pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. You'd think it would be obvious, but it's actually a lot of discipline because a majority will seem neutral. If you keep sensing what's there, you'll start to notice much subtler areas of sensation and qualities of pleasantness and unpleasantness.

So that's step 1 (practicing noticing sensations) and step 2 (practice noticing pleasant, unpleasant and neutral qualities)

Then, you only need 10 emotions at most to explore at this point - negative emotions - anger, sadness, hatred, fear; positive emotions - happiness, love, excitement, and maybe one or two neutral ones - surprise, interest, curiosity.

You could take one each day - just notice all kinds of shades of anger - irritation, frustration, annoyance, etc

Then shades of anxiety, sadness, happiness, etc.

You'll be astonished at the vast differences you'll start to notice.

DEFINITELY start with sensations though - focusing on intense emotions like anxiety or anger can easily overwhelm you if you haven't practiced just noticing sensations. Also if you have any chronic pain syndromes you'd have to approach this differently as well.

The final step is to notice the layers of mental interpretation that are laid on top fo the sensations, feelings and emotions.

Ok, to your question.

Judgment - a mental interpretation of an event.

Emotions: mental interpretations of sensations. Body sensations.

Do you see the difference?

"I'm a bad person."

The emotion that goes along with that may be painful shame.

That emotion of painful shame is non-verbal yet "mental" (or "cognitive" - but I'm afraid this may be getting WAY too complex already) "interpretation" of a set of bodily sensations associated with the MENTAL JUDGMENT "I"m a bad person."

if this last part is confusing please ignore it. you really don't have to understand much at all to do inner work. It's mostly a matter of experience, not thinking or analysis (though MUCH later on, once you're solidly rooted in a rich tapestry of experience, the thinking and analysis may be somewhat helpful)