Lesson 2 Transcript

Below is the full transcript of Lesson 2

This lesson and transcript are part of the RAD for Life social-emotional learning program. Educators, counsellors, and parents may view and use this material for personal learning or classroom discussion. The content may not be reproduced, redistributed, or used commercially without permission. The lesson is provided so you can preview and plan how RAD may be used in your classroom or particular setting. Copyright © RAD for Life. All rights reserved.

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Lesson 2 Transcript: Recognizing Thoughts, Feelings, and Behaviours

The following transcript accompanies the RAD Lesson 2 video and focuses on the first skill in the RAD framework: Recognize. In this lesson, learners practice identifying thoughts, feelings, and behaviours and begin building the awareness needed to respond to challenges in ways that align with what matters most.

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Welcome back to radforlife.com — the home of the RAD SEL Lessons.

This is Lesson 2: R is for Recognize.

Before we jump in, let’s do a quick review of Lesson 1.

Last time, we introduced RAD and what it’s all about. We learned that RAD is a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) program for everyone — not therapy or counselling, but a way to build lifelong skills that help you understand yourself and focus on what really matters to you.

We also introduced the acronym RAD, which stands for Recognize, Accept, and Do — three skills that work together to help you live a meaningful and empowered life.

Today, we’re focusing on the first letter in RAD: R, which stands for Recognize.

In RAD, we talk a lot about three separate but connected things: thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Recognizing these three accurately is a skill, and like any skill, the more you practice, the better you get at it.

Let’s start with a fun story.

A social media account once went viral for renaming everyday objects in unusual ways.

A glass of milk? Renamed “cereal sauce.”
A zebra? Try “prison pony.”
A penguin? How about “panda fish”?

Now, if I told you I saw a prison pony on safari or poured cereal sauce on my breakfast, you’d probably be confused — unless you saw the picture.

That’s the point: knowing the correct name for something helps us talk about it clearly.

So what does this have to do with RAD?

Part of recognizing in RAD is being able to label your experiences accurately. This starts with knowing the difference between a thought, a feeling, and a behaviour.

Maybe this comes easy to you, but I remember when I was first challenged to talk about these three things, I realized I had never really thought about it before. I was surprised that this simple skill was something I had to learn and practice.

So that’s what this lesson is about: learning what thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are, and practicing identifying them.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the definitions we will use in RAD.

Thoughts are ideas or opinions in your mind. For example, thinking “this video is boring” is your mind expressing an opinion. Your mind is a busy place and produces many thoughts throughout the day.

Feelings are emotional states or reactions in your body. Your sleepy eyes, slow breathing, or sudden interest in the ceiling above you might be signs of boredom. Feelings are different from thoughts because they are emotional experiences happening in your body.

Behaviours are the actions you do in the world. For example, doodling on a page while watching this boring video would be a behaviour.

Telling the difference between these three things is important because they are working together all the time. Understanding how they are different and how they connect helps us better understand ourselves and take more thoughtful actions.

Let’s look at another example.

Imagine you’re walking on a long, wobbly suspension bridge. You might have a thought like, “What if this breaks?” You might experience a feeling like fear, which could show up as a fast-beating heart or sweaty hands. And you might perform a behaviour like gripping the handrails tightly or running back to the other side.

Of course, everyone responds differently to situations.

The suspension bridge might cause totally different thoughts such as, “This is so cool!” It might create feelings like excitement and lead to different behaviours. You might even stop and look down through the wooden slats beneath your feet.

Same event, different thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.

Let’s try a different scenario — one that other people might find challenging.

Imagine you’re in math class and the teacher calls on you.

You might have a thought like, “I’m going to get this wrong.”

You might feel nervous.

And your behaviour might be avoiding eye contact or mumbling your answer.

In all of these examples, thoughts, feelings, and behaviours influence each other. Your thoughts can influence your feelings, which can affect your actions — and your actions can influence how you feel or what you think. Everything is connected.

We’ll talk more about how they interact later, especially when we learn about Accepting skills.

For now, here’s the key point.

Living a RAD life means being able to correctly identify your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours so you can respond to challenges in ways that fit with who you want to be and what matters most to you.

Everyone experiences difficult situations and uncomfortable thoughts or feelings. When that happens, it can be hard to respond in a helpful or positive way. Recognizing what’s happening is the first step.

The activity in Lesson 2 will help you practice this skill. The activity and instructions are available on the website.

Congratulations — you’ve just learned your first RAD skill to help you live a RAD life.

Up next, we’ll look at Accepting — in other words, what to do with what you notice.

But first, try the activity.

And until next time, Be RAD!

Activity Two

Activity Two has two parts.

For the first part, simply identify each statement as either a thought, a feeling, or a behaviour. Remember, thoughts are ideas or opinions in our mind, feelings are emotional states or reactions in our body, and behaviours are the actions we take in the world.

For part two, there is an image. Your job is to identify what the person in the image might be thinking and feeling, and to describe what they are doing.

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