Considering an Emotional 'Sea Level' for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Nearly a decade ago, I was fortunate to be part of Dr. Aaron Beck's 95th birthday celebration at the American Psychological Association conference. An entire hall of psychologists sang for this endearing yet highly knowledgeable man of many decades and contributions. Everyone was suddenly the same in that moment — tied by their passion for psychology and constructive cognitions. Today, in the scope of what can be written in a blog, I'll reflect on how positive emotions, in general, would matter in the larger construct of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a therapeutic method in which dysfunctional thought patterns are targeted to be replaced by ones that can ease psychological functioning and behavior (Beck, 2019; Beck, 1963). In common terms, we may often feel justified in our poor habits and tendencies due to the thoughts that shape them. Because of having origin in thought, it's not easy to see poor habits and patterns as problematic. The psychotherapist's work in this domain is, therefore, to reveal alternate explanations and ways of thinking in a safe conversational environment to counter beliefs that may not come to mind otherwise.

The study of positive emotions blossomed more thoroughly after 1998, which is why examining how such emotions generate the therapeutic context for CBT is still something that can be deliberated on at length. One reason for this is how negative emotions typically have a longer theoretical history in the study of emotions. In other words, in Beck's younger days, positive emotions were most likely viewed using models and theories better suited for understanding negative emotions. Only after the mid-1990s, it would have become possible for people to empirically see the various reverberating ways in which positivity could matter in altering cognitions for good, in a sustained manner. Needless to say, Dr. Beck must have met Drs. Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers sometime in the 1960s or 70s to wonder about this issue. However, the positive scientific framework wasn't as set then, as it is today. In the dark shadow of psychological disorders, 'positive emotions' would have sounded either too ideal, naive, or unacknowledging of the person's actual condition, if at all considered in therapy in a serious way. The conclusion, at best, would have been along the lines of finding the right stage of therapy when any positivity may be introduced.

Even today, many psychologists agree, rather than having a positive/negative division, considering terms such as constructive/destructive or approach/avoidant may be more psychologically inclusive and realistic (Davidson, 1992; Ekman, 2012). In fact, in the clinical psychotherapeutic world it took a few years of convincing and clarification to understand positive emotions correctly, when positive psychology first emerged with its good scientific intentions. The term 'positive' was seen as either applicable in the later, milder, or a therapeutically unrelated experience of a client seeking therapy (Lazarus, 2003). Fortunately, we have now come a long way since (Wang, Guo, & Yang, 2023). Positive experiences are integrated and intertwined in how we respond to psychological darkness, including struggles with bad events or poor thought patters (McAdams, 2004). How? I attempt to identify some ways ahead, some of which, I'm sure have been studied in recent times in a more systematic manner.

1. Positive emotions would matter in generating the psychological conditions due to which a client may be able to see greater possibilities for change. I use the metaphor of an emotional 'sea-level' to signify this idea. When we are cognitively limited, depleted, and debilitated, we are akin to think in binary terms (life/death, yes/no, etc.). However, today, we know the emotional breathing and swimming space enabled through positive imagination when generally struggling with or suddenly caught amidst psychological threat.

2. Physiologically, the nervous system is also supposed to behave quite differently when engaging in positive meditative states, not necessarily as a stationary practice, simply being mindful in daily functioning. A shift from threat to challenge bound notions is more likely.

3. Positive emotions, such as gratitude, enable greater outward focus and less rumination, crucial when tackling states of depression (Watkins, et al., 2003; Kalon, et al., 2025).

4. A greater frequency of positive emotions, not intensity, is of much more relevance in cognitive behavioral thought scenario. Why does this matter? This matters because most people assume they have to first be in some high unachievable state of feeling good before any benefits of such emotions may be of any use. Not necessarily. Incrementally moving in the direction of positive possibilities is one way in which sustenance of adopted cognitive strategies may be maintained. Adoption of new thinking is easy, maintenance, not so much. Consequently, there are higher chances of completing the full course of therapy if the changes and improvements felt are incrementally internalized or adopted as personally chosen beliefs and behaviors.

   
   

   Recognizing positive authentic moments of progress can happen only when the therapeutic environment allows some light in the typically dark room of psychological disorders and disappointments. Even when cognitive strategies aren't showing up in forms of constructive change as expected, a well-agreed upon humor of a dark kind is, after all, required to keep going with what matters the most — a psychological life of many emotions and conflicting beliefs — which, any day, is better than contemplating about what went wrong, or worse, death.

   
   
   
   

References

Beck, A. T. (2019). A 60-year evolution of cognitive theory and therapy. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(1), 16-20.

Beck, A. T. (1963). Thinking and depression: I. Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9, 324–333.

Davidson, R. J. (1992). Emotion and affective style: Hemispheric substrates. Psychological Science, 3(1), 39-43.

Ekman, P. (2012). Emotions revealed: Understanding faces and feelings. Hachette UK.

Kalon, L. S., Freund, H., Rinn, A., Watkins, P. C., Zarski, A. C., & Lehr, D. (2025). Effectiveness of a gratitude app at reducing repetitive negative thinking as a transdiagnostic risk factor in the general population: Results from a pragmatic randomized controlled trial. Journal of Affective Disorders, 119664.

Lazarus, R. S. (2003). Author's response: the Lazarus manifesto for positive psychology and psychology in general. Psychological Inquiry, 14(2), 173-189.

McAdams, D. P. (2004). The redemptive self: Narrative identity in America today. In D. R. Beike, J. M. Lampinen, & D. A. Behrend (Eds.), The self and memory (pp. 95–115). Psychology Press.

Wang, F., Guo, J., & Yang, G. (2023). Study on positive psychology from 1999 to 2021: A bibliometric analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1101157.

Watkins, P. C., Woodward, K., Stone, T., & Kolts, R. L. (2003). Gratitude and happiness: Development of a measure of gratitude, and relationships with subjective well-being. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 31(5), 431-451.