Reply To: Exercise 14: The Model

by Beth
in

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Beth
Participant

The Model

Situation 1: I have anxiety about the changing administration in the US government and want to feel more calm and directed

ENVIRONMENT – In my home reading about or watching the news about the incoming administration or having conversations with friends

BELIEF – Autocracy and oligarchy are taking over in the US government

EMOTION – Sadness, resignation, determination, curiosity

BEHAVIOR –
1. Avoid reading or watching any news and avoid discussions of it
2. Engage with Indivisible to learn how to use my individual power to more effectively use my power as an individual citizen.
3. Change my self-talk to include the “opportunity” that the current circumstances offer in changing what needs to be changed in order for government to serve the needs of all its citizens.

Situation 2: I would like to be more flexible physically

ENVIRONMENT – Arriving home after my daily exercise routine.

BELIEF – Exercising every day makes me feel good about life and adding stretching at the end would make it even better.

EMOTION – Relaxation, satisfaction

BEHAVIOR – Finish my daily exercise routine with stretching.

REFLECTIONS:
I have not exactly written out my “emotional model” before this class but I have studied them and have used them consistently throughout my life with increasing awareness of doing so as the years progressed. I enjoyed seeing how Josh structures his thinking about this topic. I would say the most stark contrast I see in my model from Josh’s is that mine is more based on emotional experience than mental constructs. An example of this would be in his discussion about beauty at the end of the third video. When asking if one could see beauty in one scene vs. another, he referred to recognizing the plate tectonics of the mountain scenes in his journey to seeing the “equal” beauty of the scenes. I immediately imagined myself sitting in those scenes and felt the presence of beauty which also was an imaginative exercise but one that focused on feeling (“presence”) rather than thinking about their nature. Even with the cockroach I could see myself in the presence of the roach appreciating its design and intricacy. With the person polluting, I could feel the “person-ness” which sparks my curiosity about what they might be thinking when they decide to leave the car running with the a/c on, or wonder if they are stressed, hurried, etc.

The usefulness of using environments, beliefs, emotions, behaviors is yet to be seen for me. I appreciated the invitation to look toward a couple of things I would like to address and to apply this model. I don’t feel ready to evaluate comparisons or usefulness yet.

The discussion of pleasure, happiness and reward made me think about the studies in delayed gratification. In some ways, this demonstrates the difference in the instant pleasure of now and the ability to imagine experiencing increased gratification (reward?) if I wait just a little while longer. Will I withstand the discomfort of “longing” right now for the perceived greater reward later? I have pondered this issue in this group of people interested in changing our own behaviors regarding polluting and changing the tide of behavioral norms in our human society. It seems to me that people in this group experiences the sensation of reward, and even happiness, without the necessity of “pleasure” immediately. In my experience, the pleasure may come, but it isn’t necessarily immediate. I’m still working on this but it is definitely in the mix as I examine the differences between the three.

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