Total behaviour activities

With a partner or small group, try the following activities and discuss.

1 Ask your partner to close their eyes and try their best to follow your instructions to:

• think red
• think blue
• stop thinking blue
• feel angry
• feel sad
• raise your heart rate
• lower your cholesterol
• sweat
• raise your hand
• touch your nose
• open your eyes

2. Next, discuss which directions were the easiest to follow. This should underscore the point that the easiest component of total behaviour to control is the acting component, followed by thinking, feeling, and physiology in that order.

3. In this next activity, identify the component of total behaviour listed and discussed what the other components would be for you.

Example: eating sushi

• eating sushi is the acting component of total behaviour
• other components (for me) are
  • thinking: "yuck this tastes like raw fish"
  • feeling: embarrassed because liking sushi is supposed to be cool
  • physiology: gag reflex

Now you try doing the same for the following:

• daydreaming

• skiing

• breathing deeply

• being sad

• reading a novel

What have you learned about total behaviour?