Despite the cultural trope depicting emotions as the opposite of rational thought, cognition — what we commonly refer to as thinking — is actually a key building block of emotion. How we think about our circumstances shapes the emotions we experience; then those emotions echo back to influence how we think. For instance, if you walk into a test thinking you are bad at taking tests, your anxiety will be increased. Then you don’t feel good about your performance on the test, and that becomes evidence for continuing to think that you’re bad at test taking. In this way there’s simply no pulling emotion and cognition apart. This bi-directionality of cognition and emotion allows us to adjust difficult emotions by changing the way we think. By thinking differently — I get nervous sometimes, but I’m still a good test taker, or that nervous feeling is just excitement and anticipation, it means I’m ready — you can work those pathways to your advantage.