Feel the fear and do it (acceptance)
Don't fight the fear (that grows it) and don't flee — board with it, expecting it. Sit the fear in the seat beside you.
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Facing a long-standing fear (such as a fear of flying) tends to offer three responses. One: ‘I won’t board’. Two: ‘board and fight the fear’ — which, by action-reaction, only inflates it. There is also a third path: board WITH the fear, expecting it — ‘this will be terrible, I’ll be scared — I sit down with this fear’. Literally picturing the fear in the seat beside you helps. That’s acceptance in ACT terms.
The same move precedes real change even in hard areas like obesity: you first have to name the situation (stop saying ‘I’m just plump’, face the fact, e.g. Stage-II obesity) before you can even look for solutions. ‘Hard is the way’ — avoiding difficulty means avoiding the good on its far side.
Helps with
Resources & links
1 sourceWhat the research says
Scientific grade verified against the literature. No entries = no direct studies (graded from mechanism/experience).
- Acceptance and commitment therapy for autistic adults: A randomized controlled pilot study in a psychiatric outpatient setting (NeuroACT)RCT · 2023
- Efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Social Anxiety Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysismeta-analysis · 2024
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Adults with ADHD during COVID-19: An Open Trialstudy · 2020