Behavioral.activation Quotes

Our friend and colleague Marsha Linehan often says, “Emotions love themselves.” Feeling down tends to elicit actions that are consistent with feeling down.

behavioral activation (borrowed from evidence-based treatment)

ACT uses acceptance and mindfulness processes and commitment and behavioral activation processes to produce psychological flexibility. It seeks to bring human language and cognition under better contextual control so as to overcome the repertoire-narrowing effects of an excessive reliance on a problem-solving mode of mind as well as to promote a more open, centered, and engaged approach to living.

A person who posses a cunning attitude are not always academically intelligent, but they are considered clever because they can manipulate and cause harm towards others in order to gain something out of them for their own benefit. They can be defeated if people stand up towards them and point out their actual inappropriate behavioral activities with logical reasoning.

Two powerful factors drive avoidance of activities: 1An immediate sense of relief from dodging what we think will be difficult 2Not experiencing the reward from engaging in the activity, thereby further diminishing our motivation for it Behavioral activation is designed to break these patterns. Lead with Action Like Beth, many of us are waiting to feel better so we can get back to the things we used to enjoy. However, it’s much more efficient to gradually start doing rewarding activities, even if we don’t feel like it. The interest in the activities will follow. This approach is the foundation of behavioral activation for depression.

Another reason codependency is called a disease is because codependent behaviors—like many self-destructive behaviors—become habitual. We repeat habits without thinking. Habits take on a life of their own.10 Whatever problem the other person has, codependency involves a habitual system of thinking, feeling, and behaving toward ourselves and others that can cause us pain. Codependent behaviors or habits are self-destructive. We frequently react to people who are destroying themselves; we react by learning to destroy ourselves. These habits can lead us into, or keep us in, destructive relationships, relationships that don’t work. These behaviors can sabotage relationships that may otherwise have worked. These behaviors can prevent us from finding peace and happiness with the most important person in our lives—ourselves. These behaviors belong to the only person each of us can control—the only person we can change—ourselves. These are our problems. In the next chapter, we will examine these behaviors. ACTIVITY

You know, I read a study that found that baking is actually therapeutic. It's something to do with the repetition of measuring ingredients, and creativity. Psychologists call it behavioral activation.

Often the beginning of a story is one moment that impacted how you thought about the world around you and changed your behaviors. Activity Make a short list of the moments in your life that you remember most vividly.

The Brain’s Two Systems A number of researchers think that there are two systems in the brain and that it is the balance of these two that creates sensitivity. One system, the “behavioral activation” (or “approach,” or “facilitation,” system) is hooked up to the parts of the brain that take in messages from the senses and send out orders to the limbs to get moving. This system is designed to move us toward things, especially new ones. It is probably meant to keep us eagerly searching for the good things in life, like fresh food and companionship, all of which we need for survival. When the activation system is operating, we are curious, bold, and impulsive. The other system is called the “behavioral inhibition” (or “withdrawal,” or “avoidance,” system). (You can already tell by the names which is the “good” one according to our culture.) This system is said to move us away from things, making us attentive to dangers. It makes us alert, cautious, and watchful for signs. Not surprisingly, this system is hooked up to all the parts of the brain Kagan noted to be more active in his “inhibited” children. But what does this system really do? It takes in everything about a situation and then automatically compares the present to what has been normal and usual in the past and what should be expected in the future. If there is a mismatch, the system makes us stop and wait until we understand the new circumstance. To me this is a very significant part of being intelligent. So I prefer to give it a more positive name: the automatic pause-to-check system. But now consider how one might have a more active pause-to-check system.

A number of researchers think that there are two systems in the brain and that it is the balance of these two that creates sensitivity. One system, the “behavioral activation” (or “approach,” or “facilitation,” system) is hooked up to the parts of the brain that take in messages from the senses and send out orders to the limbs to get moving. This system is designed to move us toward things, especially new ones. It is probably meant to keep us eagerly searching for the good things in life, like fresh food and companionship, all of which we need for survival. When the activation system is operating, we are curious, bold, and impulsive. The other system is called the “behavioral inhibition” (or “withdrawal,” or “avoidance,” system). (You can already tell by the names which is the “good” one according to our culture.) This system is said to move us away from things, making us attentive to dangers. It makes us alert, cautious, and watchful for signs. Not surprisingly, this system is hooked up to all the parts of the brain Kagan noted to be more active in his “inhibited” children.

You know, I read a study that found that baking is actually therapeutic. It’s something to do with the repetition of measuring ingredients, and creativity. Psychologists call it behavioral activation.

Attempts at trying to directly alter internal experiences (a.k.a. painful emotions) are viewed as less fruitful (and often impossible) than attempts at changing the environment in which these experiences occur. If a client is depressed, what changes can they make to their lives to have a different experience? As the behavioral activation literature has taught us, because we have more control over external behaviors (e.g., taking a walk, visiting with friends) than we have over internal behaviors (e.g., uncomfortable thoughts and feelings), it’s generally more effective to try to effect change with what we can control or influence (Kanter et al., 2012).

The Umwelt marks the difference between the world such as it exists in itself, and the world as the world of a living being. It is an intermediary reality between the world such as it exists for an absolute observer and a purely subjective domain...Thus behavioral activity oriented toward an Umwelt begins well before the invention of consciousness: as soon as we have stimulation that act, not by simple physical presence, but insofar as an organism is disposed to receive them and treat them as signals. Consciousness is only one of the varied forms of behavior...Consciousness must appear as institution, as a type of behavior,..We must allow for an Umwelt at the level of the organ, at the level of the embryp, just as it is necessary to allow for activities of consciousness...Uexküll himself posits the Umwelt as a type of which the organization, the consciousness, and the machine are only variations.