Make room for feelings
Stop spending all your energy pushing anxiety away. Let it be there while you get on with your day.
“My chest is tight, and I can still send this email.”
Built on ACT
Six skills for psychological flexibility
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) describes six processes that help people stay open, present and active even under stress. They work together, and each one can be practiced.
Step back from thoughts
See thoughts as things your mind produces, not orders you have to follow or facts you have to believe.
“I’m having the thought that I’ll fail.”
Come back to now
Notice when your attention drifts into worry or distraction, and gently bring it back to what is in front of you.
Three breaths. Feet on the floor. One task.
You are more than a feeling
Feelings and stories about yourself come and go. The part of you that notices them stays steady.
“This is a hard moment, not a hard life.”
Know what matters
Get clear on the kind of person you want to be, so your choices have a direction even when motivation is low.
“I care about being there for my family.”
Take the next small step
Turn values into concrete actions, sized so you can start today and keep going tomorrow.
Ten minutes on the report, then a short walk.
Practice
Try one skill right now
Skills grow with practice, not with reading about them. This short exercise uses defusion: you step back from a difficult thought so it has less pull on what you do next.
Try a skill · Defusion
about 30 secondsRead this thought slowly, as if it were completely true.
“I’ll never get all of this done.”
- 1 · Notice
- 2 · Name
- 3 · Choose
Notice how much space it takes up.