A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters

by Steven C. Hayes

ACT defines values as chosen qualities of being and doing. They can be expressed with verbs and adverbs: teaching compassionately, giving gratefully.

they are not goals. They are the qualities by which we do things.

You cannot achieve a value; you can only manifest it by acting in accordance with it.

Living in accordance with our values is often ironically undermined by our pursuit of goals.

The Values pivot is about turning away from the pursuit of goals that are socially compliant or avoidant and toward living according to your chosen values.

Consideration of values can also trigger an inner voice of “have to” instead of nonjudgmental self-examination.

Think of someone you do not know but whose life story you deeply respect or admire. Ponder the person you picked.

What does move us? Ask yourself about the qualities of this person: what he or she stood for or represented in how he or she lived.

My guess: these are qualities you want in your life.

Not bad for fifteen minutes of writing. It changed these students’ behavior in a measurable and positive way over the next fifteen weeks.

We found that the key to making this last pivot, and staying on course with behavior change, is to start small and then to piece together larger habits.

Habit development is much more effective when people begin with what might seem tiny, even inconsequential, commitments.

The basic message of ACT about behavior change is that we can’t expect to build competence in a new course of living overnight.

Jennifer Villatte, and my team produced strong proof that the power of ACT is greatly enhanced when all six pivots are made.

Flexibility processes change only when targeted, and you need all of them.

Your body assumed first an avoidant posture and then one of flexible acceptance.

And if there truly is no one who has lifted you up (sadly, some people are in this situation),

😕

Did you feel accepted for who you are by this person? Did you feel constantly judged and criticized, or was judgment somehow softened or far away? Was the person generally present with you when you were together or were they distracted, half there, maybe even stealing glimpses at their watch as if hoping to get away? Did you normally have a sense of being seen by that person, as if they knew you deep down? Did what you care about matter to that person? Could you be together in different ways that best fit the situation and what you both wanted, or was it always only one way, determined by the other person?

Maaaan fuck! People feel this?

ACT is a form of applied evolution science.

1. Variation.

Evolution requires alternatives to choose from.

2. Selection.

We must have a way to select the variants that are more successful in dealing with life’s challenges.

3. Retention.

In our minds and behavior, we store helpful ways of thinking and acting in habits of responding to the world that get ingrained in our neural networks.

4. Fit.

The selection of what works has to be tailored t...

we must be sensitive t...

5. Balance.

You have aspects to you that are biological, cognitive, emotional, attentional, motivational, behavioral, and spiritual. Your overall health depends on you nurturing all of these dimensions and keeping them in balance.

6. Levels of scale.

It will do you a lot less good to be highly evolved at the larger social scale—say, having developed a massive social network—if your close relationships keep falling apart.

All living things adapt based on variation and selective retention of behavior that fits the circumstances, is in balance across key dimensions, and operates at many levels of scale.

let go of the avoidance and fusion that narrow our alternatives (variation); specify through values work what it means for us to be successful (selection); practice and build helpful behaviors into habits of committed action (retention); consciously pick different approaches for different situations by being more mindfully aware of the present moment (fit); stay aware of all the key dimensions of our psychological being (balance); and actively cultivate our social support network and the needs of our bodies (levels of scale).

The average public health worker in Sweden missed 2¼ months of work every year, and up to 50 percent of them had already been on disability at one point or another.

Those randomly assigned to receive the four hours of ACT training missed on average only a half a day of work over the entire six months—a 99 percent reduction in sick leave use. The participants given the usual medical treatment had 15.1 medical visits during that time; the ACT participants had 1.9 visits—an 87 percent reduction. Pain and stress went down in both groups equally, but what is important is that the ACT participants had reductions in pain and stress while going to work, whereas the medical-treatment-as-usual participants had so many work absences that they were now headed toward a lifetime of disability, just as the government feared when it identified them as “high risk.”

A recent example followed over 108 people who had experienced nearly a decade of chronic pain. Three months after brief ACT training, 46.9 percent showed significant improvement in psychosocial disability. Three years later the figure was nearly identical: 43.1%.

After just four ACT sessions, 39 percent of the participants were depression free, increasing after six months to 52 percent and after five years to 57 percent. Even five years after only four sessions, two-thirds said they were still using ACT methods and only 6 percent were using antidepressant medications versus five times that number when they started.

The next step is to look hard at whether these methods have delivered results, and if so, whether they were large and lasting or small and fleeting. You will usually find that some—or even all—of them have helped in the short term, but that they haven’t contributed to longer-term improvement and might even have made things worse.

But is an ancient contraction of be out,

love my husband and I have thoughts like I can’t stand living with him.”

We only think there’s a contradiction because of a simplistic cultural rule that we should always have positive feelings about those we love.

the agenda of imposing a false order in our thoughts gradually channels a yearning for coherence into living a narrower life.

paying attention to the thoughts that are useful to us for living in accordance with our values, and letting go of a focus on thoughts that are unhelpful.

functional coherence—it

Before the Defusion pivot, we grasp at form over function; afterward, we trust function over form.

No matter how good you are at defusion, your mind will keep forming new thoughts that you will naturally fuse with

The goal is progress, not perfection.

Look at It as an Object

If it had a size, how big would it be? If it had a shape, what shape would it have? If it had a color, what color would it have? If it had speed, how fast would it go? If it had power, how much power would it have? If it had a surface texture, how would it feel to the touch? If it had an internal consistency, what would that be?