How do we reprogram our brains to create a different pairing in response to challenging thoughts and emotions?
When we think about this pairing, it is literally a byproduct of conditioning. I’m sure you’ve heard of Pavlov’s dogs and salivating to the sound of a bell? Although we are way more complex than dogs, the process of conditioning is the same. We have had a series of thoughts, feelings, and actions that have occurred in this sequence enough times to create an automatic response.
So how do we change this programming?
One of the first steps to changing this and rewiring our brains is through self-awareness. Becoming aware of that process, writing down the thought that leads to the feeling, the feeling that leads to the action, and the action that ends up leading to the thought.
Once we become aware of this, we can identify where we might be able to make a change.
For example, you could counter the Thought in the sequence with a less inflammatory thought.
You can identify both the cognitive feeling, and the bodily sensation in the Feeling sequence, and respond by changing the action. For example, if Anxiety cues in the body result in going into attack mode - we could place a warm hand on our chest and take a few deep breaths instead.
During the Action stage of the triangle, we could do the Opposite Action of what we normally do.
The first step is awareness, and the second is finding appropriate and effective changes that we will then be able to repeat, over and over and over again, until we’ve created a new set of sequences and a new program.
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