Our internal experiences can be divided into four categories: thoughts, emotions, physical feelings, and behaviors. “Thoughts” are the verbal content in our minds, our attention, and imagining the five senses in our minds. “Emotions” are one form of feelings, such as sadness, happiness, anxiety, excitement, curiosity, and anger. “Physical feelings” are the other form of feelings, which are more bodily, such as racing heart, light-headedness, fatigue or energy, or muscle tension/relaxation. “Behaviors” are our actions – the things we do, such as moving an object or going to a social event.
Importantly, each of those categories affect each other. In treatment, our goal is to improve the entire cognitive-behavioral cycle to improve the way you think, the way you feel emotionally and physically, and the behaviors you engage in.
Treatment usually involves discussing and better understanding examples of your personal cognitive-behavioral cycle. We will discuss the treatment plan and options. When conducting psychological treatment, the areas we work with are the “Behaviors” and “Thoughts” categories because these are the areas we have the most direct control over as humans. For example, can you imagine a red car right now (Thoughts), and can you scroll up/down on this website (Behaviors)? Most likely, the answer is “yes.” But if we told you to “start sweating” (Physical Feelings) or to immediately feel jealous (or stop feeling jealous) (Emotions), that would be a lot harder because we cannot directly control emotions or physical feelings (e.g., we can’t turn them on and off like a light switch). Because the four categories of internal experiences all affect each other, and because we can modify thoughts and behaviors, we focus on improving those and, indirectly, aim to improve emotions and physical feelings, too.
By improving this cycle, you can think and feel better and get closer to living your life to the fullest in the ways that matter to you.
Cognitive Behavioral Cycle
