FEELING STRESSED/ANXIOUS? – ACT for Anxious moments. 

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) aims to help people to live a fullness of life in line with their values.  Using mindfulness principles it assists people to open up to and accommodate difficult experiences.  ACT does not directly remove or change unwanted thoughts and feelings, but helps people develop a new mindful relationship with those experiences which can then free them up to live according to their chosen values. 

When we are feeling stressed its easy to let our thoughts and feelings overwhelm us.  Everyone responds differently to different ways of managing this – some find deep breathing helpful, others may find exercise or progressive muscle relaxation works for them. Here is an exercise from ACT that may assist with helping to manage difficult thoughts and feelings. 

The key to remember is that practicing techniques when we aren’t feeling emotional storms makes them familiar and more easily accessible when we are facing difficulties. Try this ‘Dropping Anchor’ exercise: 

 

Dropping Anchor: 

This exercise helps us to remain steady in the midst of a storm.  It doesn’t make the thoughts and feelings go away but rather helps us not to be pushed around by them allowing us to hold on until the storm passes. 

The acronym ACE is used here: 

A = Acknowledging the thoughts and feelings. So the first step is to pay curious attention to the thoughts and feelings we are experiencing.  What are our thoughts telling us, where are we feeling things in our body? 

C = Come back into our body. Feel the ground under our feet – press them into the floor.  Sit or change position, maybe take a stretch or a deep breath. 

E = Engage.  Engage back with your surroundings. Look around the room what do you see? What can you hear? Are there any noticable smells? Take a breath and notice how it flows in through your nose and out through your mouth. 

It’s a good idea to maybe do this 3 or 4 times and notice any changes to how you are feeling.   

 

('Dropping Anchor' Adapted from Focused Act and Commitment Therapy - Russ Harris )