[Stone Drum]

I wanted to make a simpler thread than my usual in order to get new perspectives about a simple thing-

Why do we greet people with "how are you feeling", and not "how are you thinking?"

Is it because thoughts directly precede feelings? (But don't feelings also precede thoughts?) If so, does this shed any light on the power of feelings over thought?
If not, what does it mean?

 

[Synful]

It's been my experience that people don't greet each other with 'how are you feeling?' unless it is an intimate relationship or you know beforehand the person has been ill or not doing so well. The vast majority of time in life it's 'how are you?' - generic and broad enough to either be answered however or just used as a 'hi'. It's not really asking how you are feeling or what you are thinking but rather 'what have you been up to?' with the subtle suggestion with most people 'what are you up to that I might find remotely interesting and that you can keep brief?' lol

But to answer the point of your question it may be that thoughts are more easily transferred and gathered through conversation, whereas feelings are only ever self contained. Yes you can show what you are feeling or tell someone but you can't really have them feel what you are feeling. You can however share words/thoughts with someone in a way that is more 'implanting' directly into their brain and so perhaps the phrase 'how are you thinking' is not needed b/c a conversation will make that clear.

Hmmmm interesting to think about

 

[Stone Drum]

Maybe I get asked all the time how I'm feeling because I've been in and out of health issues for so long. Also, I interpret more ambiguous greetings such as "how are you" or "how are you doing" as practically the same thing as how are you feeling. Maybe this is my own feeling prioritizing that makes me interpret it this way. Maybe someone who is a HUGE thinker and not much a feeler would respond to this type of question about their mental health.

But it still stands I've never been asked how I was thinking. Maybe this is just a weird question in general to ask someone. But mental health is every bit as important as physical health.

I dunno, maybe this is a silly and pointless thread. I guess I'm just carelessly probing how people may value feeling over thinking in some cases, while the reverse in others, but perhaps default to a universal emphasis on how someone is feeling?

And I think you are absolutely right about feelings being more ambiguous and thus need to be coaxed out more...After all, feelings and emotions can hide motives and intentions of thoughts.

 

[UnicornRainbowLove]

It depends a lot on culture and country. I am no expert on foreign uses, but as far as I understand actually English people will not answer "how are you doing?" with anything but "good" or "how are you doing?". It is usually just a conversation starter or a practice in being polite, they aren't actually interested/didn't ask because they wanted to know your feelings.
Personally I used to take the question literally and actually stop up to think about it and then tell about my situation, which never really seemed to resonate very well with others. They become quite baffled as they never thought of hearing anything but "I'm fine. How about you?". Now I try to just keep up the happy atmosphere most of the time, but sometimes I will still give a sincere answer.