What is going on in our brain?

There’s a lot going on in our brain — much of which we’re not aware of.

One way of understanding what is happening is to think of your brain in terms of the different responses that we work with in CBT. I will talk about these responses in more detail in a later post.

• We can start with Thinking. Thoughts are constantly passing through your brain. Since your brain is designed to solve problems, think around issues and investigate possibilities and ideas in a creative and innovative way, you will have many varied (and often negative) thoughts. While some of them are useful and contribute to a better understanding of your world, many of the thoughts and ideas we experience are not. You can think of your thoughts as ideas rather than facts.
• A second part of your brain involves Feelings. You can think of your feelings as your emotional response to both the world and what you are thinking about. Feelings are processed in various parts of your brain, but you are more likely to experience them in your body, such as sensing a heavy weight on your chest (when you are feeling sad or unhappy) or tight, tense muscles in your shoulders (when you are feeling anxious). Since emotions are a physiological response, being aware of and noticing your body’s reactions can help you understand more about the feelings that you are experiencing.
• A third response is your Behaviour. Behaviour is something that you do rather than just experience. This means that it is often observable and therefore can be measured and evaluated. In humans, behaviour is purposeful. Behaviour is something that we can initiate even when our thoughts and feelings might tell us something different. For example, you can go to the gym or call a friend even when you clearly don’t feel like it and can think of many reasons why you shouldn’t.
• A fourth response is your Physiological Reactions. Your body will often respond to what you are doing, thinking and feeling automatically. You may observe shaking, sweating, panicky breathing, a racing heart, heaviness, a clenching stomach, tense muscles, fluctuating energy levels and other responses.

These four aspects of the brain are interactive — that is, if you make changes in one of these aspects, it will affect the other three. This is good news if you are feeling anxious or unhappy, since you have three areas in which to work or make changes.

In CBT thoughts are seen as powerful determinants of feelings and behaviour, and so much of the work we do is based on understanding your thinking. Sometimes it is helpful to work on and change behaviour since this may be easier to modify.

What you can do

Notice the difference between your thinking (What is your mind telling you?), feeling (Where in your body do you feel? Can you label your feeling?) and behaviour (What are you doing?).

Information adapted from: Padesky, C.A. & Mooney, K.A. (1990). Presenting the cognitive model to clients. International Cognitive Therapy Newsletter, 6, 13-14.