Step 5: Try Out the New Behaviors and Observe Their Effects
Once you have made a commitment to conduct an experiment, it is time to try the new behaviors and observe their effects.
Exercise: Planning for the Week You can now use some blank activity - and - mood monitoring charts to plan some activities and make commitments to when you will do them. You can use the chart like a planner or scheduler. Write down the changes you plan to make in the coming week on the particular days and times that you plan to do them (you will need enough charts to schedule activities for each day). As you do the new activities, be sure to monitor your moods. Continue to monitor your activities and moods for those times when you do not plan an activity.
You may notice a positive effect from some of these new activities. Some activities can give you a sense of accomplishment. Getting dirty dishes cleaned and put in cabinets may make you feel like you’ve accomplished something even in the midst of depression. Other activities, such as listening to a piece of music that you enjoy, may bring you pleasure. Activities can result in feelings of both accomplishment and pleasure, such as working out did for Ken. He took pleasure in the activity and also felt that he had accomplished progress toward his overall physical fitness.
There are three very important things you need to do when changing your behavior. The first is to become as fully involved as possible in the new activity when you’re doing it. Focus on what you’re doing rather than on things that happened in the past or might happen in the future. For example, if you spend all your time during a walk thinking about things that make you depressed, you aren’t really taking a walk. You just happen to be walking while your real focus is on what’s going through your head. To be involved in a walk means to observe and experience the process of walking itself: seeing what’s around you, feeling the wind, sun, or rain, and hearing the sounds of birds or other things in your environment.
The second important thing to do when changing behavior is to avoid evaluating the outcome of the experiment while it’s going on. While speaking to friends on the phone (a new behavior), you may find yourself thinking, for example, “Zoloft isn’t working, because I still feel depressed.” When you focus your attention on whether the experiment is “zoloft working,” you are not involved in what you’re doing; you’re evaluating it. Instead, allow yourself to experience whatever you experience during a new activity and evaluate it afterwards. How did it feel? What was your mood like during the activity? Did your mood change at any point during the experience? What was your mood like compared to how it usually is during this time of day or in this situation?
The third important thing is to try an experiment more than once. Good scientists always
run an experiment more than once, because results can vary. We recommend that you try any new behavior at least three times before drawing any conclusions about how it affects your mood.
