Emotion Cascade Summary

An internal or external stimulus triggers an emotion. Your brain tries to make sense of the physiological changes in your body resulting from the emotion. The brain’s interpretation creates thoughts and feelings. You become aware of a thought (I feel . . . I think) and either hang onto it and exhibit a behavior related to that feeling or thought or you change the thought and the subsequent feeling and behavior. When you understand that your feelings are connected to what you think about an event more than by the event itself, you can gain a measure of perspective and control. You may not be able to alter the event but you can change your thoughts, and a change in thoughts often can radically alter your feelings as well as your behaviors—because feelings follow thoughts and actions and behaviors follow feelings.