Has Your Stomach Ever Rumbled?
I’ve written a basic primer on ACT and psychological flexibility for the general public for Pathways Consulting LLC, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where I practice therapy.
Here’s a brief intro and a link to the full post:
Has your stomach ever rumbled?
If it started rumbling right now and I pointed at you and said “Hey, cut it out! Stop it!” Would you be able to?
I know I wouldn’t, and even if I could stop it mid rumble, I might be interrupting some vital process of my body. We understand that this is how our body functions, there are large parts that we can control, like our limbs, eyes, mouth, and there are large portions that we simply have no control over like whatever our spleens are doing right now.
In Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (or ACT pronounced as the word “act”) we view the mind as being much like our body. There are parts of our mental experience that we can control—for example, we can think on purpose—and there are parts of our mental experience that we have no control over, like when our minds hand us things like painful memories, harsh self-judgments, and all sorts of unwanted stuff without even asking our permission first!