Creating An Upward Spiral In Your Life w/ Behavioral Activation (My Favorite Brain Hack)

You know the drill - what you think creates what you feel, what you feel drives what you do,  what you do becomes your lifestyle, and your lifestyle IS your reality.

But what about when we are feeling... blah... unmotivated... stuck... discouraged... unable to stick to our plans... or life is just really taking it out of you?

The part of this cycle that we are focusing on in today's episode is this, the driving factors that cause how we ACT. To do so, we're tapping into a highly successful therapy modality called "Behavioral Activation".
We'll discuss how you can intentionally choose the direction of your life in an instant by getting into the habit of CHOOSING actions that stimulate an upward spiral of positivity, even when motivation seems to be playing hide and seek. (Of course, we will be breaking down exactly what this means and how to do it)

This episode is full of strategies for creating more control over your actions in a way that drives your life in the direction that YOU choose. 
Most importantly, a guide through the most crucial step of breaking the cycle of inactivity and low mood by taking the right intentional actions for ourselves.

The power of small acts of self-care and personal commitment have the power to transform your entire trajectory and help you up show up for yourself in the way you KNOW you can.

So join me this week as we discuss the power of transforming thoughts into purposeful action through Behavioral Activation!


------------------------------
Click here for quick links!
Website for coaching info: www.PurposefulLifestyleDevelopment.com
Reach me: info@purposefullifestyledevelopment.com
Free Coaching in our Tiktok Community: https://www.tiktok.com/@coachtessa
Live: http://www.wellnesscoach.live/coaches/tessa-spisak
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/CoachtessaPLD

Up to $40 off your 1st Daily Harvest Purchase here! Use "CoachTessa" at Checkout
Shop DYI Clothing here! 20% Off Every Order With "CoachTessa" at Checkout

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Your actions are what creates how you feel. So don't wait around to feel ready. If you don't feel ready and you just feel like that readiness isn't coming, that's okay. Do it instead so that you feel ready. Action begets, action begets momentum. This is intentionally breaking, intentionally breaking the link in the chain and intentionally putting yourself into the movement of that upward spiral.

Speaker 1: 0:32

Hello, my loves, and welcome to the Purposeful Lifestyle Development Podcast, where we discuss all things thought, work and manifestation but we use neuroscience and the study of the brain to do so. I'm your host, tessa Spiesak. I'm a board certified practitioner, master life and health coach and seasoned executive speaker. If you're ready to create your highest value lifestyle and turn your dream life into a reality, you're in the right place. Let's get right in to today's episode. Hello, hello, my loves, and welcome back to the Purposeful Lifestyle Development Podcast. If you're here every week, I so appreciate you more than you know being part of this conversation, and if this is the first time you've tuned in, welcome. Don't forget to hit subscribe so that you can stick around as we continue this conversation to come.

Speaker 1: 1:22

And today I want to talk about a concept that really, really changed my life, and not to be dramatic or anything, and I don't mean that in a crazy clickbait type of way, but I do genuinely mean that it's something that I've kept with me as a pillar of how I conduct my life. I don't walk you through it. I think most of us have heard of this pattern of your thoughts create your feelings, your feelings create your actions and your actions create your lifestyle. Then your lifestyle becomes your reality Kind of the premise of this show. Right? You think your thoughts over and over again until you assign some truth to them, even subconsciously, and they become your beliefs. Then your beliefs create the lens through which you interpret the whole world around you, and your brain loves to prove you right, so it will filter through all the things that you see and perceive to help you do so. And that's why thought work is so important and something that I hammer on consistently. But today we're talking about the actions that we take that really helped shift our reality, and I'm obviously clearly jumping right in no background story. No, hi, hello, how are you? Let's just go. But I want to paint the picture for you.

Speaker 1: 2:45

You know we all have those days, we all have them, where you're just like not feeling it. You aren't feeling it. That day, this day, is not your day. Maybe you slept crappy, so immediately when you wake up, you're already not off to a good start. Maybe something happens or something doesn't happen and, such as life, you just don't feel like it. You don't feel like doing the things. Maybe you planned on doing the thing that moves the needle for you, you planned on working out, you planned on checking that nagging thing off the to-do list, you planned on honoring your body with some movement, or you were going to do the workout that makes you feel good. Right, make the meal from the healthy ingredients that you know you deserve and gives you lots of energy. Whatever the case, but life is life and sometimes we just don't feel like it. But this is where we get a choice, and it doesn't always feel like a choice in the moment, but the choice is there and it's there for us to make, and we get to choose to one listen to how we feel and allow that to dictate what we do, or we do and allow that to dictate how we feel. Hear me out.

Speaker 1: 4:07

We tend to do things as humans that continue us into more of whatever state we are in. So when you're feeling great, full of energy. The sun is on your face, you got plenty of sleep, breakfast was perfect. You know your vitamins are doing what you want them to do. That's when we feel our best and we start to do things that continue that high flying feeling. We use that energy to knock out our to-do list, which makes us feel more on top of life. We hit the workout that gives even more endorphins and feel good hormones. You eat the healthy meal, because why would you eat something crappy that weighs you down when you're already flying so high. You know you work on your passion project because you feel that fire in your belly and then it continues to ignite that fire. It's a beautiful upward spiral of momentum that really feels like the best flow state of your life and we love it when it works out that way.

Speaker 1: 5:10

But if we allow our feelings to dictate how we move about, you realize the same thing can happen in the other direction, right? Something happens. So we don't feel good, we don't feel our best, so maybe we sleep in that day, keep snoozing, so we don't have to deal with it, don't have to think about it. And now we have a stressful, busy morning, or maybe we feel down and tired, so we skip the movement, which then makes you feel more down and tired because you're just sitting there or you ignore the phone call from the friend that usually makes you feel good when you talk to them because you're just not feeling so hot right now. And all of these things they make us feel worse. We have a tendency to lean into whatever we are feeling and whatever feeling we have in that moment. So it can be great when we're feeling like we're flying high, just not a problem in the world, but not so much otherwise, and it can start a really vicious cycle that feels awful.

Speaker 1: 6:16

So I want to introduce you to something that, like I said, really changed my life for the better when I learned what words to use for it and how to really put it into action. Behavioral action therapy and behavioral action therapy. It's just a title, it's a subset of cognitive behavioral therapy, but it's actually super, super successful for people in either treating or helping to treat situational or even clinical depression. It's not just depression, but anxiety disorders and a host of different disorders. It's a real therapy that has seen so much success and it's not hard. I mean, it's a simple concept, right? We've talked about the difference between simple and easy and, like I said, honestly, for me, this helps me feel like I am in control of my brain and my life and just more together with myself and my life. And it is an approach to mental health and basically the premise is it focuses on behaviors that activate pleasant emotions, rather than following on what actions our feelings tell us to take in that moment.

Speaker 1: 7:32

So, like I said, maybe a longer title, but really simple concept of do the things that ignite the pleasure, do the things that make you feel better, even when you really don't feel like it, and I do need, need, need. This is very important. So please listen here, pay attention here. I need to make this super clear. This is not about not feeling your feelings. This is not about ignoring your feelings. This is not some kind of spiritual bypass. It's nothing like that. I still want you to and you still need to feel your feelings, but it's about recognizing when those feelings are keeping you stuck, they're making you feel an act in a way that makes you feel more unmotivated and lethargic, and when you are feeling low and you no longer want to feel that way, when you know you want this change and you want to feel better.

Speaker 1: 8:25

This is how it starts, with the cycle and recognizing the cycle that we don't want to continue. So when we feel low, we aren't so motivated to do things or we stop doing the things that matter and make us feel better. So the next step of the cycle is we get a little less out of life, or at least we feel like we're getting less out of life. That leads to us feeling low, which leads to further ingraining, not having the energy to do what matters to us. So then we feel like we're getting less out of life and feel lower. And then it happens again and again and again, and we move further from the goal post. So now sprinkle in some dread and some anxiety, because maybe this is going on for a while. The to-do list is getting longer, the timespan has been longer. You get the picture.

Speaker 1: 9:14

What we need to do is find where to break the link right. So there's only three plots here we feel low, then we stop feeling motivated to do the things that make us feel better, so we stop doing the thing. We feel like we have less out of life, so we feel low, we do less. We have to find where to break the link, and that is by doing the things that matter to you, not listening to the voice in your head that says you can't, or it won't feel good or whatever, and just do the things that matter, the little things.

Speaker 1: 9:46

This can be the small things. This doesn't even have to be getting out of your house. It can take two minutes. This is putting away what you use today so that you have a clean space tomorrow. It's doing the dishes, throwing your clothes in the laundry. These can be the most simple base pieces of self care here. But you do the things that matter. And when you do the things that matter, you feel like you get more out of life. So then you feel better and you're more likely to do again the things that matter. So you'll feel better, so you'll get more out of life, and then you'll want to do the things that add to your life, and then you feel better and the cycle continues. And now it's continuing upwards. And again, this doesn't mean changing your life all at once. We're having a whole new life tomorrow. It's much simpler than that.

Speaker 1: 10:35

It's recognizing that pattern. If it's there for you, notice what is causing low feelings, and then what do you do, inadvertently even, that keeps you stuck in that feeling. Next, get curious with you. With you in that moment. What would you prefer to feel? What's the value set that you're reaching for? What are the things that do make you feel better? Get a list going how do you feel when you feel good? Or what do you do when you feel good? Write that list and then, in the moment where you recognize it, when you're like, ooh, I feel crappy, so I'm really tempted to not go out with my friend that I had plans with and just canceled dinner, or I just wanna sit and doom scroll on the couch. Instead of doing all the good things that I planned that are good for me and helpful for me, I just wanna do nothing and isolate myself.

Speaker 1: 11:32

Whatever response it is that you take, that doesn't serve. You find the thing that brings you more pleasure Maybe it's even the opposite emotion, the opposite response and actually do it. Do the thing that you would do if you felt better in this moment, and I promise you will feel better in the moment. And here's the big one. This is the one thing I really, really want you to take away from today is that remember that your emotions come from your actions, and it's not the other way around. Let me say this again your actions are what creates how you feel. So don't wait around to feel ready. If you don't feel ready and you just feel like that readiness isn't coming, that's okay. Do it instead so that you feel ready. Action begets, action begets momentum. This is intentionally breaking, intentionally breaking the link in the chain and intentionally putting yourself into the movement of that upward spiral.

Speaker 1: 12:34

And the small, tiny details count the little things that you do for you count the changes in thought pattern that nobody else even knows about. They count the times you say no to the thing that gives you temporary comfort or distraction in favor of a yes to the thing that you actually want, even when you don't feel like it, before you start. This is what matters and this is what counts. It's true that your thoughts create your feelings and your feelings create your actions. Your actions create your lifestyle and your lifestyle becomes your reality. But if you don't watch it and you're not careful when those thoughts create our feelings and those feelings are creating our actions, if we get stuck in the wrong direction, if we start getting stuck in that negative spiral, that's where we're not gonna like the actions we take, the lifestyle that we have created, that reality that we're in. So when we talk about creating your own reality, this is it. This is becoming the person that you want to Get clear with you.

Speaker 1: 13:38

This isn't something that I can directly tell you what it is. I can definitely help you figure it out and work through it, and you know I will, but this is all very personal and very personalized to you. What makes you feel really, within your soul, feel better? How do you move and how do you act on your best days? And how can we turn those days that aren't so great and aren't so hot More like the days that you love the most, more like your flow state, high, vibrational, just high flying states? And this is definitely one way to do it. If you get curious, look into it a little more behavioral activation theory, of course, if you want to work with me on it, you know where to find you. I would be honored to be on that journey with you. So take a look.

Speaker 1: 14:25

This week, a next session or next episode, I will be back talking about my favorite ways to actually create lasting change. This is my number one way that I do it with my patients that do work one-on-one with me, and this is the way that I do it for myself the easiest, most successful ways, and, as you guys know, I'm always all about. If you ever want to make a change, there's two big things you need for it. You got to understand it. It has to make sense that's why we explain it all here and so has to be fun. It has to feel really, really good. That's a point of everything we're doing here, too, is making you feel better within your own life, and again, I'm honored to be on that journey with you. So, until next time, take a look at what's going on in your life, take a look at how you're feeling and where can we create some sort of upward spiral.

Speaker 1: 15:18

I can't wait to hear about it. Please let me know what's going on with you. If this episode or this podcast in general has helped you out and you haven't given us your five star rating and review yet, I would absolutely love it. It helps boost our conversation in the algorithm so that more people can join in. I'd be honored and thrilled to see what you like about it and how it's helped. So, however, you're listening, giving us a review there would be great. But to each and every one of you listening today, however, and wherever you are listening in, you've got all my love in the world. But all right, my loves, that's where I'll leave us today. I wanna thank you so much for joining in on this conversation with me, and each week, every Monday, we're gonna be posting a new episode, going a little bit deeper into the conversation, of what you can do to train your brain on purpose to really allow for the lifestyle that you want to live. Until next time, my loves. In the meantime, here's to your health and your happiness, ière geh.