Integrating Thinking, Feeling and Acting

Lesson 24

Integrating Thinking, Feeling and Acting

Some forms of behavior are automatic, like breathing or scratching an itch. Others, like eating are rarely automatic. Eating behaviors are the end result of a continuum or a sequence of events which are influenced by your thoughts, feelings and emotions.

Defining the Continuums

Some input or cues trigger thoughts and feelings that in turn lead to some kind of output or behavior. That continuum looks something like this:

INPUT
FILTER
PROCESSING
OUTPUT
Cue
Beliefs and Attitudes
Thoughts and Feelings
Behavior
Controlling the Continuum

Using the following HM&N Continuum Exercise to keep track of your thought, feeling, behavior continuums. Soon, you will start to recognize patterns, certain situations, ideas and feelings that regularly set you off in search of food. And you will find more and more ways to deflect the continuum away from eating behaviors into more appropriate ones.

HM&N Continuum Exercise

INPUT
What cues are particularly dangerous for me in terms of wanting to eat?
What cues might be at work right now?
FILTER
What negative beliefs do I hold that affect me in this situation?
How could I rephrase those beliefs to allow for the possibility of success?
What information could these beliefs keep me from seeing in this situation?
PROCESSING
What am I thinking about that is making me want to eat?
Could I think about something else? Or could I be thinking about this in more constructive ways?
How do I feel right now? Bored, anxious, unhappy, angry?
What can I do or think about to change these feelings?
OUTPUT
I am going to (a) eat or (b) do something more constructive and appropriate for which I will reward myself with_______________________________________________________

The most important thing for you to know about the thought/feeling/behavior continuum is that you can change the outcome.

Gene C.