Table of Contents
What is thought feelings and behavior?
Simply put, a situation arises, and we have thoughts about the facts of that situation; those thoughts trigger feelings, and based on those feelings we engage in behaviors which in turn impact the situation (either positively or negatively), and the cycle continues. Our thoughts create the context which determines our feelings. Anyone’s feelings are a priori (“before the fact”) authentic and valid, whether or not the perceptions, thoughts and beliefs one has of the situation are true to life and accurate. Thoughts, perceptions, feelings, sensations, are patterns of brain activation. Memories are shortcuts to those patterns. Our thoughts and feelings influence our behaviors, choices, and ultimately, outcomes.” Also connected to our thoughts and feelings are behaviors. Behaviors are our actions or the ways in which we present ourselves to others. Our behaviors outwardly reflect how we are feeling on the inside. Your thoughts, if you think them over and over, and assign truth to them, become beliefs. Beliefs create a cognitive lens through which you interpret the events of your world and this lens serves as a selective filter through which you sift the environment for evidence that matches up with what you believe to be true. The right brain identifies negative emotions, like fear, anger or danger. It then alerts the left brain, which decides what to do by interpreting the situation and making a logical decision about how to act in response. It’s a great system, unless something happens and one side of the brain can’t do its job.
Is thinking a form of behavior?
Behavior includes observable actions—all the things other people can see—as well as things everyone else may not be able to see, such as feelings, emotions, thinking, and remembering. We call the things we can all see overt behaviors and the things we are not able to see as covert behaviors. Behaviour is how someone acts. It is what a person does to make something happen, to make something change or to keep things the same. Behaviour is a response to things that are happening: internally – thoughts and feelings. Behavior is driven by genetic and environmental factors that affect an individual. Behavior is also driven, in part, by thoughts and feelings, which provide insight into individual psyche, revealing such things as attitudes and values. According to cognitive neuroscientists, we are conscious of only about 5 percent of our cognitive activity, so most of our decisions, actions, emotions, and behavior depends on the 95 percent of brain activity that goes beyond our conscious awareness.