Mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment: How to help your anxiety and depression.
Whether you are experiencing, anxiety, dperession, relationship problems, family difficulties or may other life adjustment and mental health issues, the three words, Mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment are words that can signficantly help to reduce the problems associated with these difficulties. I teach my clients how to use Mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment in their everyday lives, Once you have knowledge of what they mean and how to incorporate them in your life, you can find relief and peace with less stress and anxiety.
For most, there is an attempt to control what is discomforting in order to make that discomfort go away. When anxiety, depression and other problems corp their ugly head, the first thing that most people do is to make attempts to control the symptoms by either trying diligently to eradicate them, avoid them, worry excessively, engage in distraction or pretend they do not exist. Such attempts are the worst thing that anyone can do. Rather than "struggling" to control them, you can learn to "give up" that struggle. The struggle to control your most difficult fears and emotions perpetuate a vicious cycle of dispair and anguish. This creates a self fulfilling prophecy that spirals out of control.
Mindfulness is a word to describe your internal awareness of what you feel, by labeling it for what it is. I often have clients who struggle finding the words to describe accurately what their emotions are and/or what they are feeling at any given time. Mindfulness is your ability to increase your emotional awareness without fear. Feelings cannot hurt you. What hurts and creates anxiety is your interpretation or belief of the feelings, not the feelings themselves. Therefore, I help my clients to change their distortions and misperceptions of their emotions so they increase a peaceful sense of Mindfulness.
As you learn to increase your Mindfulness, you can begin the art of Acceptance. This may come in the form of an acknowledgement of your emotions that you have kept hidden. This is a form of denial, a natural defense mechanism that over time has perpetuated avoidance. Once you learn to accept emotional discomfort and give up the struggle to control it through avoidance behaviors, you can begin to find Acceptance and find strength to commit to doing the work that will help you overcome your problems.
In order for your problems to change and for you to find solutions to those problems, it takes a commitment that goes beyond just a willingness to do so. Commitment means having the strength to endure change that often comes at a price. Change is difficult for most. Change is not about personalities, but thoughts, perceptions, distortions and a belief system that creates catastrophic thinking that invevitably leads to stress, anxiety and depression. It means not just doing things differently, but thinking and believing differently. The ability to think and believe in yourself and others around you, as well as the problems you experience takes a commitment. Once you have discovered Mindfulness and Acceptance the next step is making that Commitment to change your perceptions, distortions and beliefs that have kept you emotionally hostage.
Whether you are experiencing, anxiety, dperession, relationship problems, family difficulties or may other life adjustment and mental health issues, the three words, Mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment are words that can signficantly help to reduce the problems associated with these difficulties. I teach my clients how to use Mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment in their everyday lives, Once you have knowledge of what they mean and how to incorporate them in your life, you can find relief and peace with less stress and anxiety.
For most, there is an attempt to control what is discomforting in order to make that discomfort go away. When anxiety, depression and other problems corp their ugly head, the first thing that most people do is to make attempts to control the symptoms by either trying diligently to eradicate them, avoid them, worry excessively, engage in distraction or pretend they do not exist. Such attempts are the worst thing that anyone can do. Rather than "struggling" to control them, you can learn to "give up" that struggle. The struggle to control your most difficult fears and emotions perpetuate a vicious cycle of dispair and anguish. This creates a self fulfilling prophecy that spirals out of control.
Mindfulness is a word to describe your internal awareness of what you feel, by labeling it for what it is. I often have clients who struggle finding the words to describe accurately what their emotions are and/or what they are feeling at any given time. Mindfulness is your ability to increase your emotional awareness without fear. Feelings cannot hurt you. What hurts and creates anxiety is your interpretation or belief of the feelings, not the feelings themselves. Therefore, I help my clients to change their distortions and misperceptions of their emotions so they increase a peaceful sense of Mindfulness.
As you learn to increase your Mindfulness, you can begin the art of Acceptance. This may come in the form of an acknowledgement of your emotions that you have kept hidden. This is a form of denial, a natural defense mechanism that over time has perpetuated avoidance. Once you learn to accept emotional discomfort and give up the struggle to control it through avoidance behaviors, you can begin to find Acceptance and find strength to commit to doing the work that will help you overcome your problems.
In order for your problems to change and for you to find solutions to those problems, it takes a commitment that goes beyond just a willingness to do so. Commitment means having the strength to endure change that often comes at a price. Change is difficult for most. Change is not about personalities, but thoughts, perceptions, distortions and a belief system that creates catastrophic thinking that invevitably leads to stress, anxiety and depression. It means not just doing things differently, but thinking and believing differently. The ability to think and believe in yourself and others around you, as well as the problems you experience takes a commitment. Once you have discovered Mindfulness and Acceptance the next step is making that Commitment to change your perceptions, distortions and beliefs that have kept you emotionally hostage.