I personally think of my emotions as actual Things that I interact with or feel logically. I feel and express whatever emotion I have, and I try to logically understand it. I believe trying to ignore or rationalize it away is the worst thing one could do, but understanding the feeling, feeling the feeling, and understanding Why i'm feeling the feeling is important. And I tend to go about this discovery/understanding in a logical/rational way

in terms of your exercise, I evoked an emotion through taking a memory, and extrapolating in a certain direction. I've done it before, brought myself to tears, but I think sadness is one of the easier things to evoke.