What Is “A” in ACT: Acceptance

The opposite of control is acceptance.

The goal of ACT is to increase your acceptance of anxious feelings and thoughts through interventions that develop your awareness as an observer so that anxious thoughts and feelings can have less impact and you can move your attention to more meaningful aspects of your life.

An observer stance: you are not your anxiety.

When we experience strong emotions, there is a tendency to respond as though we are our emotions and beliefs. We believe it all and can’t see beyond the strong feelings and thoughts. We see it in how we talk about experience with things like “I am anxious.”  The reality though is that anxiety is just one aspect of your experience. It is something separate from the “You” that is experiencing it. “You” with all the different pieces and experiences.

ACT therapists use mindfulness training as well as other techniques to help you to move toward perceiving anxiety as just another aspect of your experience.