it may be more helpful to think of humans as having many ‘minds’ rather than just one john teasdale: cambridge psychologist these different mind-body states are linked to different emotions, different body landscapes, different ways of thinking, different access to memories, and different behaviours theoretical maps are crucial: 2

‘body-mind as house’ model  it’s easiest to recognize the different ‘rooms’ by noticing the different characteristic emotions they are linked to  all human beings have much the same set of emotional mind-body ‘rooms’ in our ‘houses’  all the rooms are there because, in the appropriate situation, being in the room promotes survival  when we’re in one room, it’s hard to remember there are any other rooms in the house: feelings/thoughts/memories  problems arise when we get stuck in inappropriate rooms humans are like houses with different rooms which represent our different mind-body states

examples of emotional functions anxiety can serve an individual by making them hypervigilant - ready to run or freeze and it also alerts others to possible danger anger can help an individual act rapidly to defend themselves when their territory is invaded & it serves to frighten others away depression can occur when our movement towards a major goal is blocked - it causes us to pause, re-evaluate and change direction

‘body-mind as radar’ model the body-mind is like a radar & rapid response system constantly assessing whether the outer & inner environments are favourable or unfavourable emotions (like a constant wash of changing colours) are ‘readings’ from this radar & rapid response system the emotional radar system is ‘quick & dirty’ triggering rapid responses that may be accurate, adaptive & possibly life-saving or inaccurate & unhelpful

Well, it’s a delicate situation, sir... sophisticated firing system, hair-trigger mechanisms, and Bob’s wife just left him last night, so you know his mind’s not into this. Gary Larson emotions can be disruptive, particularly if stuck or excessive

 we are typically unhappy because of our emotional state – emotions are at the heart of improving wellbeing.  working to construct maps & models of what has been happening is often very therapeutic in its own right.  becoming clearer what we are really feeling is a crucial aspect of learning from our emotions (‘arriving’).  what we do with the feeling (‘leaving’) depends on whether or not the underlying emotion seems ‘adaptive’.  try to use ‘adaptive’ emotions – including ‘positive emotions’ – to fuel constructive action.  work to ‘process’ and update ‘non-adaptive’ emotions. some of the many possible implications possible implications for wellbeing

developing skills in application formal practice developing a trigger phrase/focus first “differential” practice second “differential” practice the reminder dot exercise stressful real life situations when you are not using the recorded exercise try other simple activities as challenges: for example eating, walking, cleaning your teeth & so on