"Thought is often a reaction to an emotion and is an attempt to justify the experience of an emotion.

The thinking is trying to solve the emotion, but the emotion is unconscious, so the thinking continues to spin out of control. An emotion is not caused by an external event; the mind assigns an emotion to an external event. The confusion is resolved when we focus on the emotion and let it be what it is, while at the same time releasing the need to think our way out of the emotion."

Stepping out of self-deception - p. 55