I often hear the terms 'awareness', 'thoughts' and 'feelings' used interchangeably, and thanks for building a distinction here.

Physical awareness is a phenomenon that is experienced in the present. It is instant and transient. In a sense any physical matter (particle or object) could conceivably be considered 'aware'. The particles that make up the object are aware, for an instant, of any other particles or objects they encounter - either attracting or repelling them in accordance with a complex system of physical laws.

Organic objects such as humans (and other higher animal forms) can take this one step further, by recording these encounters in the form of memories of sensory observations in their brain. These memories are then categorized, compared and contrasted by various conscious and sub-conscious processes, eventually forming and refining a set of beliefs.

If awareness is experienced in the present, then thought - a process commenced by recording encounters with particles and other objects - must occur after the physical encounter.

If this is the distinction between 'thought' and 'awareness' - then where do 'feelings' fit in?

Well - there are two types: physical and emotional feelings. Physical feelings are caused by biological response to interactions with the rest of the physical universe. We 'feel' cold, we 'feel' hot. We only think about these physical feelings in response to them.

But what of more complex feelings like 'feeling' happy or 'feeling' sad? These are experienced (like all forms of awareness) in the present, but they are not experienced in response to external physical stimuli (like running your hands under cold water). There is another form of awareness called 'emotional awareness' that is quite different to physical awareness.

Emotional awareness or 'emotion' is an awareness experienced in immediate response to the brain processing our memories of sensory observations. It is actually an integral part of the thought process, rather than following or preceding it.

As the new memories are compared to other memories and our set of summary beliefs, our brain makes a judgment as to how this new set of data will affect our well-being: either satisfying or contradicting a huge variety of different needs. Meet some needs and the brain registers an emotionally aware state of happiness. Run foul of other needs and the brain registers an emotional state of sadness. It is the thought (or sorting process) that triggers

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