focus on the observable relationship of a behavior to the environment (thanks, wikipedia). the idea is that figuring out the relationship between a certain behavior (say, aggression), the environment (nordstrom's shoe department during the half-yearly sale), and the reinforcement achieved (only the cutest tory burch snakeskin embossed leather flats) allows us understand the ways in which we interact with the world around us.
was politely nudging (hip checking) the woman moving towards the last pair of gold on gold ballerina flats in a 6.5 truly necessary?
in my case, i learned that the occasional misdemeanor can leave you with feet encased in perfection, so why would i ever resort to asking another store for inventory when i can just as easily assault my way to flawless fashion?
herein lies the problem, people... you can only dole out so many black eyes before someone sees you have an aggression issue, so, should you want to avoid permanent placement into an ill fitting orange jumpsuit, you need to alter your maladaptive behavior by replacing it with an acceptable one.
now, three hundred words into a blog about the application of applied behavior analysis in the real world, you might be wondering what any of this has to do with wedding planning... and, here it is.
i am an anxious person.
i'm the girl getting all twitchy and sweaty and hyperventil-aty while taking tests (calculus was hard, though.. right? right??), and during Taken, every time liam neeson got this close to finding his daughter, i was wearing a hole in my living room floor. i like (love.adore.insist upon having) control over anything i'm involved with, so, it's like, yayyyy, i get to plan a wedding, but then it's like, it's my wedding, and then, i'm like i can totally do this, but then it's like, can i totally do this? and then, did i mention i tend to ramble when i'm anxious?
so, here's my plan. i want to use applied behavior analysis to work on decreasing my anxiety driven problem behavior of running onehundredandeighty degrees in the opposite direction of anyone asking, "so when are you guys getting married?".
and now, i intend to end this blog the same way i will begin each blog in the future, with a list of my newest do's and don'ts...
i do want to write a wedding blog detailing the amazingness (an author approved antonym for horror) of planning a wedding to "the boy" (how he will be referred to from this point on).
i don't want to have a wedding.
