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!


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Your actions are what creates how you feel.
So don't wait around to feelready.
If you don't feel ready and youjust feel like that readiness
isn't coming, that's okay.
Do it instead so that you feelready.
Action begets, action begetsmomentum.
This is intentionally breaking,intentionally breaking the link

(00:23):
in the chain and intentionallyputting yourself into the
movement of that upward spiral.
Hello, my loves, and welcome tothe Purposeful Lifestyle
Development Podcast, where wediscuss all things thought, work
and manifestation but we useneuroscience and the study of
the brain to do so.
I'm your host, tessa Spiesak.

(00:44):
I'm a board certifiedpractitioner, master life and
health coach and seasonedexecutive speaker.
If you're ready to create yourhighest value lifestyle and turn
your dream life into a reality,you're in the right place.
Let's get right in to today'sepisode.
Hello, hello, my loves, andwelcome back to the Purposeful
Lifestyle Development Podcast.

(01:06):
If you're here every week, I soappreciate you more than you
know being part of thisconversation, and if this is the
first time you've tuned in,welcome.
Don't forget to hit subscribeso that you can stick around as
we continue this conversation tocome.
And today I want to talk about aconcept that really, really

(01:26):
changed my life, and not to bedramatic or anything, and I
don't mean that in a crazyclickbait type of way, but I do
genuinely mean that it'ssomething that I've kept with me
as a pillar of how I conduct mylife.
I don't walk you through it.
I think most of us have heardof this pattern of your thoughts

(01:48):
create your feelings, yourfeelings create your actions and
your actions create yourlifestyle.
Then your lifestyle becomesyour reality Kind of the premise
of this show.
Right?
You think your thoughts overand over again until you assign
some truth to them, evensubconsciously, and they become
your beliefs.

(02:08):
Then your beliefs create thelens through which you interpret
the whole world around you, andyour brain loves to prove you
right, so it will filter throughall the things that you see and
perceive to help you do so.
And that's why thought work isso important and something that
I hammer on consistently.
But today we're talking aboutthe actions that we take that

(02:34):
really helped shift our reality,and I'm obviously clearly
jumping right in no backgroundstory.
No, hi, hello, how are you?
Let's just go.
But I want to paint the picturefor you.
You know we all have those days,we all have them, where you're
just like not feeling it.
You aren't feeling it.

(02:55):
That day, this day, is not yourday.
Maybe you slept crappy, soimmediately when you wake up,
you're already not off to a goodstart.
Maybe something happens orsomething doesn't happen and,
such as life, you just don'tfeel like it.
You don't feel like doing thethings.
Maybe you planned on doing thething that moves the needle for

(03:17):
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 youwere going to do the workout
that makes you feel good.
Right, make the meal from thehealthy ingredients that you
know you deserve and gives youlots of energy.
Whatever the case, but life islife and sometimes we just don't

(03:40):
feel like it.
But this is where we get achoice, 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, andwe get to choose to one listen
to how we feel and allow that todictate what we do, or we do

(04:02):
and allow that to dictate how wefeel.
Hear me out.
We tend to do things as humansthat 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, yougot plenty of sleep, breakfast
was perfect.

(04:22):
You know your vitamins aredoing what you want them to do.
That's when we feel our bestand we start to do things that
continue that high flyingfeeling.
We use that energy to knock outour to-do list, which makes us
feel more on top of life.
We hit the workout that giveseven more endorphins and feel

(04:44):
good hormones.
You eat the healthy meal,because why would you eat
something crappy that weighs youdown when you're already flying
so high.
You know you work on yourpassion project because you feel
that fire in your belly andthen it continues to ignite that
fire.
It's a beautiful upward spiralof momentum that really feels
like the best flow state of yourlife and we love it when it

(05:08):
works out that way.
But if we allow our feelings todictate how we move about, you
realize the same thing canhappen in the other direction,
right?
Something happens.
So we don't feel good, we don'tfeel our best, so maybe we
sleep in that day, keep snoozing, so we don't have to deal with

(05:28):
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 themovement, which then makes you
feel more down and tired becauseyou're just sitting there or
you ignore the phone call fromthe friend that usually makes
you feel good when you talk tothem because you're just not
feeling so hot right now.

(05:49):
And all of these things theymake us feel worse.
We have a tendency to lean intowhatever we are feeling and
whatever feeling we have in thatmoment.
So it can be great when we'refeeling like we're flying high,
just not a problem in the world,but not so much otherwise, and

(06:10):
it can start a really viciouscycle that feels awful.
So I want to introduce you tosomething that, like I said,
really changed my life for thebetter when I learned what words
to use for it and how to reallyput it into action.
Behavioral action therapy andbehavioral action therapy.
It's just a title, it's asubset of cognitive behavioral

(06:34):
therapy, but it's actually super, super successful for people in
either treating or helping totreat situational or even
clinical depression.
It's not just depression, butanxiety disorders and a host of
different disorders.
It's a real therapy that hasseen so much success and it's

(06:55):
not hard.
I mean, it's a simple concept,right?
We've talked about thedifference between simple and
easy and, like I said, honestly,for me, this helps me feel like
I am in control of my brain andmy life and just more together
with myself and my life.
And it is an approach to mentalhealth and basically the

(07:19):
premise is it focuses onbehaviors that activate pleasant
emotions, rather than followingon what actions our feelings
tell us to take in that moment.
So, like I said, maybe a longertitle, but really simple concept
of do the things that ignitethe pleasure, do the things that

(07:40):
make you feel better, even whenyou really don't feel like it,
and I do need, need, need.
This is very important.
So please listen here, payattention here.
I need to make this super clear.
This is not about not feelingyour feelings.
This is not about ignoring yourfeelings.
This is not some kind ofspiritual bypass.
It's nothing like that.
I still want you to and youstill need to feel your feelings

(08:03):
, but it's about recognizingwhen those feelings are keeping
you stuck, they're making youfeel an act in a way that makes
you feel more unmotivated andlethargic, and when you are
feeling low and you no longerwant to feel that way, when you
know you want this change andyou want to feel better.

(08:25):
This is how it starts, with thecycle and recognizing the cycle
that we don't want to continue.
So when we feel low, we aren'tso motivated to do things or we
stop doing the things thatmatter and make us feel better.
So the next step of the cycleis we get a little less out of
life, or at least we feel likewe're getting less out of life.

(08:47):
That leads to us feeling low,which leads to further
ingraining, not having theenergy to do what matters to us.
So then we feel like we'regetting less out of life and
feel lower.
And then it happens again andagain and again, and we move
further from the goal post.
So now sprinkle in some dreadand some anxiety, because maybe
this is going on for a while.

(09:08):
The to-do list is gettinglonger, the timespan has been
longer.
You get the picture.
What we need to do is find whereto break the link right.
So there's only three plotshere we feel low, then we stop
feeling motivated to do thethings that make us feel better,
so we stop doing the thing.
We feel like we have less outof life, so we feel low, we do

(09:30):
less.
We have to find where to breakthe 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 thingsthat matter, the little things.
This can be the small things.
This doesn't even have to begetting out of your house.
It can take two minutes.

(09:52):
This is putting away what youuse today so that you have a
clean space tomorrow.
It's doing the dishes, throwingyour clothes in the laundry.
These can be the most simplebase pieces of self care here.
But you do the things thatmatter.
And when you do the things thatmatter, you feel like you get
more out of life.
So then you feel better andyou're more likely to do again

(10:14):
the things that matter.
So you'll feel better, soyou'll get more out of life, and
then you'll want to do thethings that add to your life,
and then you feel better and thecycle continues.
And now it's continuing upwards.
And again, this doesn't meanchanging your life all at once.
We're having a whole new lifetomorrow.
It's much simpler than that.

(10:35):
It's recognizing that pattern.
If it's there for you, noticewhat 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 thatyou're reaching for?

(10:57):
What are the things that domake you feel better?
Get a list going how do youfeel when you feel good?
Or what do you do when you feelgood?
Write that list and then, inthe moment where you recognize
it, when you're like, ooh, Ifeel crappy, so I'm really
tempted to not go out with myfriend that I had plans with and

(11:19):
just canceled dinner, or I justwanna sit and doom scroll on
the couch.
Instead of doing all the goodthings that I planned that are
good for me and helpful for me,I just wanna do nothing and
isolate myself.
Whatever response it is that youtake, that doesn't serve.
You find the thing that bringsyou more pleasure Maybe it's

(11:40):
even the opposite emotion, theopposite response and actually
do it.
Do the thing that you would doif you felt better in this
moment, and I promise you willfeel 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 thatyour emotions come from your
actions, and it's not the otherway around.

(12:03):
Let me say this again youractions are what creates how you
feel.
So don't wait around to feelready.
If you don't feel ready and youjust feel like that readiness
isn't coming, that's okay.
Do it instead so that you feelready.
Action begets, action begetsmomentum.

(12:24):
This is intentionally breaking,intentionally breaking the link
in the chain and intentionallyputting yourself into the
movement of that upward spiral.
And the small, tiny detailscount the little things that you
do for you count the changes inthought pattern that nobody
else even knows about.
They count the times you say noto the thing that gives you

(12:47):
temporary comfort or distractionin favor of a yes to the thing
that you actually want, evenwhen you don't feel like it,
before you start.
This is what matters and thisis what counts.
It's true that your thoughtscreate your feelings and your
feelings create your actions.
Your actions create yourlifestyle and your lifestyle

(13:07):
becomes your reality.
But if you don't watch it andyou're not careful when those
thoughts create our feelings andthose feelings are creating our
actions, if we get stuck in thewrong direction, if we start
getting stuck in that negativespiral, that's where we're not
gonna like the actions we take,the lifestyle that we have

(13:28):
created, that reality that we'rein.
So when we talk about creatingyour own reality, this is it.
This is becoming the personthat you want to Get clear with
you.
This isn't something that I candirectly tell you what it is.
I can definitely help youfigure it out and work through
it, and you know I will, butthis is all very personal and
very personalized to you.

(13:50):
What makes you feel really,within your soul, feel better?
How do you move and how do youact on your best days?
And how can we turn those daysthat aren't so great and aren't
so hot More like the days thatyou love the most, more like
your flow state, high,vibrational, just high flying

(14:10):
states?
And this is definitely one wayto do it.
If you get curious, look intoit a little more behavioral
activation theory, of course, ifyou want to work with me on it,
you know where to find you.
I would be honored to be onthat journey with you.
So take a look.
This week, a next session ornext episode, I will be back
talking about my favorite waysto actually create lasting

(14:34):
change.
This is my number one way thatI do it with my patients that do
work one-on-one with me, andthis is the way that I do it for
myself the easiest, mostsuccessful ways, and, as you
guys know, I'm always all about.
If you ever want to make achange, there's two big things
you need for it.
You got to understand it.
It has to make sense that's whywe explain it all here and so

(14:57):
has to be fun.
It has to feel really, reallygood.
That's a point of everythingwe're doing here, too, is making
you feel better within your ownlife, and again, I'm honored to
be on that journey with you.
So, until next time, take alook at what's going on in your
life, take a look at how you'refeeling and where can we create
some sort of upward spiral.

(15:18):
I can't wait to hear about it.
Please let me know what's goingon with you.
If this episode or this podcastin general has helped you out
and you haven't given us yourfive star rating and review yet,
I would absolutely love it.
It helps boost our conversationin the algorithm so that more
people can join in.
I'd be honored and thrilled tosee what you like about it and

(15:38):
how it's helped.
So, however, you're listening,giving us a review there would
be great.
But to each and every one ofyou listening today, however,
and wherever you are listeningin, you've got all my love in
the world.
But all right, my loves, that'swhere I'll leave us today.
I wanna thank you so much forjoining in on this conversation
with me, and each week, everyMonday, we're gonna be posting a

(16:00):
new episode, going a little bitdeeper into the conversation,
of what you can do to train yourbrain on purpose to really
allow for the lifestyle that youwant to live.
Until next time, my loves.
In the meantime, here's to yourhealth and your happiness, ière
geh.