By accepting what we can’t control and focusing on what creates a meaningful life for us, we create space in our minds that allows for more conscious choice.
With ACT, we start with values and goals, as you might for any other type of coaching, but in this case, we also include cognitive defusion where we look at thoughts as a flow rather than getting caught up in the content. Alongside this, we open up and allow emotions without judgement whilst also learning to connect to the thinking and the observing self. All of this is with the overall aim to increase our psychological flexibility, in other words, to see things as they are so that we have the space to respond rather than react blindly.
Another way of thinking about ACT is that it’s a methodology to raise our awareness of our experience, whether this is through thoughts, emotions or sensations. With this awareness, we create a space between our thoughts and actions which gradually enables us to cultivate insight into our habits of those thoughts and actions. Finally, with this insight, we gain the choice of how to respond and act.