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The Space Between Stimulus and Response

Between stimulus and response, there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

 —  Viktor E. Frankl

If you are aware of a recurring pattern of acting counter to your interests, you have a puzzle to solve: Why do you do it? Specifically, what is going on in the space between stimulus and response that causes you to react to the things that happen as you do? Both the antecedent event and your reaction to it occur in the physical world but the former does not cause the latter. Another soul exposed to the identical stimulus might react to it differently.

From your perspective, the cause of your reaction is the stimulus that triggered it; but from the perspective of a psychologist observing many people react to the same stimulus, the effective cause of your response was your interpretation of the antecedent event.

Your interpretations of the things that happen are psychological phenomena and are not part of the physical world. It is only by understanding and learning to work with such experiential phenomena that you will be able to exercise a mindful influence on how you react to the events that happen.

Our first objective is to understand how cause-and-effect tends to play out in your subjective universe. To accomplish this we will use a simple three-column form to observe the sequence of: External Stimulus -> Interpretation-> Emotional Reaction. The following section describes several ancient and modern strategies to modify your emotional reactions to the things that happen

The Personal Research Tool

The Personal Research Tool is a simple three-column form that allows you to observe how cause-and-effect operates in the space between stimulus and response.

Instructions:

Use the Personal Research Tool as soon as possible after you experience any overly strong or regrettable emotional reaction.

  1. Complete the third column [col C] first. Here you will name the emotion you experienced — e.g., anger, fear, frustration —  and rate its intensity from 1 [very low] to 100 [strongest emotion you've ever experienced — resist the urge to label everything a 100].

  2. Next, complete the first column [col A]. This column is for your description of the antecedent events that evoked the emotional reaction. If you can, use play-script — that is, write a description that would it enable someone who was not there to visualize or act out the events.

  3. The middle column is where we do our detective work. Here you will identify the interpretation that turned the antecedent event into the particular emotional reaction that you experienced. [Note: We are not looking for the rational, healthy analysis of what happened, but the interpretation that caused the emotional reaction you experienced at the time].
    • Recall: What thoughts or images went through your mind at the moment that may account for your emotional reaction?
    • Probe: While reviewing the episode from your current perspective, what abstractions come to mind?  Ask yourself questions such as:
      • What does this event say about me?
      • What does this mean about my life, my future?
      • What was I afraid could happen?
      • What does it mean about how this person (or other people in general) thinks about me?
      • What does it mean about this other person (or other people in general)?
      • What images or memories does this situation trigger?
    • Go Deeper: You can continue to research the answers you get by asking yourself follow-up questions such as: "If this interpretation is valid, what does that say about, me, the other, or the future?"

Click here to download the Personal Research Tool

Using the Knowledge You Acquire

The Personal Research Tool will reveal how your interpretation of the antecedent condition influenced your reaction to it. After you observe a few such episodes, you will probably notice that between stimulus and response, there is an interpretive lens that is similar from episode to episode. This lens, which you may label as a perspective, belief, or premise, determines your interpretation of the antecedent event and ultimately your reactions to it. If you want to change how you react, change the lens through which you interpret the things that happen.

Knowing Yourself Gives You the Freedom to Choose

Knowing yourself gives you the freedom to choose how you react to the things that happen. Once you understand what causes you to react as you do, you are no longer a slave to external sources of control. Mindfully applying your knowledge of cause-and-effect gives you the power to govern yourself. The next sections describes how to use this knowledge to steer so that you to follow your path of greatest advantage.

 

 

 

Then You Can Govern Yourself > >

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