This post is by David Preece, Ph.D., and Xavier Sol Banson, edited by James Gross, Ph.D.
Feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are all connected. When we are feeling stressed or down, our thoughts and behaviors can become less helpful to us. Similarly, when we begin to have negative thoughts or unhelpful behaviors, these can drag down our mood. How can we break negative spirals that span our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors? Today, we will focus on a strategy to improve how we feel by changing our behavior—behavioral activation.
Before we do that, let’s reflect on where your life is and the meaningful directions you want it to go. This will give us the foundation for planning our behaviors later, setting our ife compass in the right direction.
Feelings of stress, sadness, or burnout often come from there being a difference between how things are in your life and how you want them to be. Let’s reflect on where things are for you in four broad areas of life:
First, for each of these areas, think about what is important to you in each area. For example, how do you ideally want to spend your time in this area? What do you want it to be like?
Second, let’s rate how well each area is going right now, from 0........