It involves an enormously complex array of mental operations that differ widely based upon the type of causal reasoning involved. Total checkmarks (unshaded and shaded) 51 The Mindfulness & Acceptance Workbook for Depression Work/Study Behaviors I avoid putting myself in a position where I might fail at something at work, even if it means I wont advance in my job. If one or more of these statements remind you of you, this book can help you! Bills Journey Toward a Vital Life After he had practiced emotional acceptance and willingness for a few weeks, Bill noticed that he enjoyed social connections with his classmates and that his pain levels seemed to decrease when he was focused on others in the pain class. Note that you will subtract the number associated with your answer from 6 to obtain the adjusted score for all items. The witnesss job is to report only what he or she knows firsthand through direct experienceand not offer interpretations of an event. Touch it lightly and feels its texture. Open and Free Targets 1. Thus, your brain is primed to react with impulses to escape and avoid. Rather than fruitlessly trying to avoid your depression, youll learn to focus on living a productive life by accepting your feelings. In the Life Vision Statement column write one sentence that describes your vision for your life. How? Since all reasons are arbitrarily constructed, those that produce unworkable outcomes in your life are poor reasons. She enjoys being with her children, and she takes pride in her cooking and cleaning, but she had hoped for much more in life. She had to work two jobs to support us, but she never complained about how hard it was to make a living. You wait and watch and breathe. Willingness: a stance of voluntarily approaching events, situations, or interactions that are likely to trigger distressing and unwanted emotions, memories, thoughts, or physical reactions. RFT holds that human language and thought originate from a surprisingly small number of symbolic relations called relational frames. Lukes life is going nowhere fast, and although he believes his depression is what keeps him from a better life, in reality the problem is his inability to make and keep his promises to himself. We are neither all good nor all bad, and there is a lot of gray as well. The only way Im going to feel better is to have a drink. Minutes after recognizing, again, that drinking will only worsen the problem of depression, this person may attach to other rules that propel him to drink to excess. Right? Did particular thoughts, feelings, memories, or sensations lure you out of the present moment more than once or on an ongoing basis? I always was the new kid, so I was often teased by my classmates. BOBS STORY Bob, a forty-seven-year-old physician, first experienced symptoms of depression while in medical school. Situation: Action 1: Action 2: Action 3: Action 4. Please dont use this exercise as an opportunity to beat up on yourself; cultivate the kindness for yourself that you would give to someone else in your position. Learning to understand and interpret these signals is much more important than ignoring or avoiding themapproaches that only make the situation worse. He had also developed a smoking habit, which his wife really disliked. Emotionally resilient people utilize painful moments in life to increase self-knowledge and improve their coping abilities. JOANS RESULTS Joan wanted to strengthen her ability to take a middle-path perspective, because she felt that she often overreactednot just in relation to her insecurities about her work performance and value, but also in other social situations in which she felt like a fifth wheel. Im a failure because I misused alcohol. This exemplifies another of our favorite sayings: Practice doesnt make perfect; practice makes permanent. Continue for the next five minutes, bringing your attention back to the railroad crossing as needed. Using the 15 rating scale, please indicate in the box to the right of each statement how frequently or infrequently you have had each experience in the last month. To live a life full of meaning and purpose, her allegiance to being a good mother and a hard worker needs to be replaced with a determination to live by her true north instead. In the next section, we are going to help you develop your plan. The problem is, just because you followed a certain set of rules about how to get a good life doesnt mean youll have mostly positive feelings and experiences. Notice the sensation of the air coming up through your nose and down into the balloon in your belly. She wanted to have close friendships with men and women. You will notice that a nickname provides some mental space between you and the thoughts, feelings, memories, or sensations you might be tempted to attach yourself to. When you plot a new course in life thats based on your values, youll immediately notice that your sense of health and well-being improves. Through principles of mindful self-reflection, acceptance, and compassion, the reader learns that the opposite of anxiety is not simply the absence of anxiety, but the experience of a more fulfilling life and a richer progression toward ones personal goals. Ideally, the behaviors you come up with should produce positivity in you when you engage in them. You may notice that you and your partner experienced some of the same difficulties in being the human. You know exactly what depression feels like, and you may have modified your daily life to fit depression in as part of your ongoing reality. Daily routines are so well practiced that we dont even think about what were doing much of the time. The ability to focus and maintain attention is a fundamental skill in behavior change because being in the present moment allows you to make values-based choices about your behavior. What happened as you tried to change the figure and ground relationship between the intact parts of your life journey and the difficult setbacks or disappointments of your life? Whitaker, R. 2010. A lot of what your mind gives you is instantly useful for your survival, like when it tells you to wait for a car to pass before crossing the street. Values and Depression You might still be wondering, What do values possibly have to do with depression? One particularly powerful exercise she developed on her own was to stand for a few minutes in front of the mirror every morning. And once you can identify what you cant control, you wont get sucked into the trap of expending your energy on strategies that lead to a dead end. Now, imagine that the boxcars of this train are unique. Imagine the feelings you might start with, then write them down. 6- 4. 6- 12. Putting yourself back in that situation means you must risk failing again. On page 2 they state, "Depression never springs out of an otherwise healthy, vital, purposeful life." This is one of the fundamental challenges youand all of us, for that matterwill face on the journey to a vital life. This is difficult to do, particularly when the thoughts are compelling, the feelings 84 Understanding the Mind and Mindfulness are painful, and the memories create the impression that we are reliving the past. Reactive mind has trouble accounting for how we fit into life contexts that frequently shift and realign. Construction and Factorial Validation of a Short Form of the Self-Compassion Scale. Detachment recruits neural pathways that have been implicated in the operation of the executive control network. I feel numb inside much of the time. Notice each mental experience your mind offers, and place it on the whiteboard on the next boxcar. As you do this over days, weeks, and months, look for day-to-day differences in your value thermometer ratings. Learning to hold that detached posture when your reactive mind is yakking at you is an essential step toward moving through depression and reclaiming your life. See if you can experience firsthand the beauty of this building you have constructed. Instead we just nitpick each other and criticize what the other person does. Her husbands health continued to decline, 56 Its All About Workability and she told herself she had to stay the course and be available to him around the clock. To help you focus on opportunities for positive change in the area of relationships, write down a few examples of behavioral choices that show consistency with your values and a few that show inconsistency with your values. Your depression does not cause you to do anything; you are in control of your actions, or lack of action, regardless of your mood. Be very careful when you see thoughts like This isnt right or I shouldnt have to go through something like this. Good versus Bad Good versus bad describe the qualities of an object or event in terms of how desirable it is. As we say in ACT: The most dangerous thing about the story of your past is that you could make it into the story of your future. In this exercise, we want you to think about a hurtful life situation. Total checkmarks (unshaded and shaded) 52 Its All About Workability Leisure/Play Behaviors I have things I enjoy doing alone. These are the daily experiences that contribute to autopilot behavior and that may set you up for depression. As an observer, you dont actually ride the roller coaster but position yourself so that you can see all aspects of the roller coaster in a larger context (the platform and rails, the operator and ticket taker, the number of people in the cars, the sounds of the riders). Commitment and behavior change strategies help clients to change or persist . If you take a harsh, self-critical, self-rejecting stance, your risk of depression goes up steadily. When you empty the balloon, you will notice that your belly pulls in and up slightly. Each time you notice something, take it and put it on a cloud. However, we can come to rely too much on these strategies. Perhaps what I like most about this book is that it isnt just about helping us cope with depression its a pragmatic guide to cultivating a life filled with meaning and purpose. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. Now, get seated comfortably, close your eyes, and take a few deep cleansing breaths. This time around, Susan realized that the constant visual reminder of her daughter engaged in something that they both enjoy doing was what kept her on track. 3. The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Depression: Using - Alibris How did you do with this exercise? Annas sleep was disturbed by nightmares. Whoever is the focus of your compassion (benefactor, friend, stranger, or self), always try to conclude your brief practice by directing your wishes for compassion to a larger group (the people on your block, the people in your city, all beings in this world). By practicing this key mindfulness skill on a daily basis, you can train your brain to be like Teflon. When done, add your answers to get your total Self-Compassion score. If left untreated, clinical depression can damage relationships, cause problems at work, lead to substance abuse, and even make it more difficult to overcome physical illnesses. Watching the movie only artificially changes your mood; exercise literally does it. Emotion Regulation in Depression: The Role of Biased Cognition and Reduced Cognitive Control. Clinical Psychological Science 2: 402421. Further Exploration. 76 Understanding the Mind and Mindfulness The problem is that the functions of reactive mind creep into areas where they are not useful. Were you able to work through this exercise in a way that might prepare you to act with self-compassion in an upcoming risk situation? In observing mode, you hold still mentally and focus attention in a singular wayas if you are using the zoom function of a camera lens. It tries to control your attention, looks for problems, prefers evaluative thinking, and generates rules to guide your behavior. His parents insisted that he seek help at a local veterans center and attend Alcoholics Anonymous. She replayed pieces of their relationship over and over again in her mind, wondering what she did wrong. 2006. I am putting my feet on U.S. soil for the first time in a month today. As Bills case demonstrates, once this distinction is lost, depression can quickly spiral out of control. Did something hook you? If your hand stops writing, write the first sentence again (I am ) and continue on. This is the slippery part of learning to use words to help you understand and deal with emotionally challenging moments in life. Grandmothers Counsel the World: Women Elders Offer Their Vision for Our Planet. I value recognition of support from others. This created quite a bit of tension in his marriage because his wife felt he was always preoccupied with work. What is the target of your kindness? As you become more self-compassionate, you are more likely to be tuned in to the impact your problem-solving actions have on others. To the contrary, we would argue that people suffer because they wont or cant accept something that is an unchangeable, fixed feature in their life, such as the death of spouse or child, a divorce, or losing a job. Self-Compassion, Stress, and Coping in the Context of Chronic Illness. Self and Identity 14: 334347. 302 Promote Positivity, Prevent Relapse Learn Bit by Bit Another important aspect of learning habits is the process of shapingpracticing parts of a larger habit and then beginning to piece the parts together. If you suddenly realize you got pulled out of this exercise, just recall the time orientation of the last thought or memory you had. Much of the time, I find it hard to just be present with my intimate partner, children, or other people Im close to. I guess it helps me distract myself from things for a while. A life worth living comes in about as many flavors as there are people. Your emotional energy level will become an issue in its own rightsomething you will want to avoid. She spent considerable time writing the following responses on her worksheet, and as she did, the process helped her better understand the gifts she received when she arrived at Vision Plateau. The lack of certainty and constant change involved in values-based living is scary and can stop you in your tracks, so it is best to plan for this likelihood. Did you identify some life situations that would pose an ongoing risk to you? If you ignore that kind of intelligence, youre going to live a very short life. To get here in the midst of battling your depression symptoms and your reactive mind is a great achievement, and you should pat yourself on the back for sticking with it. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy as a Treatment for Chronic Depression: A Preliminary Study. Behavior Research and Therapy 47: 366373. | BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Meditation. The more he examined the wall, the more he was mortified by his mistake. Now focus your attention on the whole of your brick wall of life and intentionally blend in the misplaced bricks, along with the properly placed ones. The better you get at moving your attention around in a flexible way, the more keenly observant you will become of what is happening in and around you. Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS) please visit www.contextualscience.org and click on Find an ACT Therapist. Her old self-story was still there, but not in the dark, oppressive way it had been before. In addition to choosing each step, you can also choose not to take a step; in so doing, you are choosing to stand in place. Brown, and S. G. Hofmann. Can this person motivate me? If the answer is yes, you have a very good candidate for your vitality partner. Your breath is a constant, a foundation, and place from which you can travel. I feel like Im not cut out to relax and chill out. 42 Human Vulnerabilities in Depression INVENTORY OF AUTOMATIC LIVING The following survey will help you identify tendencies toward automatic living in your current lifestyle. Rather than exaggerating the significance of a problem or mistake you make, you simply describe the problem and let it be. The master sighs. She felt empowered by this exercise. The reasons we seize upon to explain our behavior are often arbitrary, simplistic, biased, inaccurate, and judgmental. Eisendrath, S., E. Gillung, K. Delucchi, Z. Segal, J. Nelson, L. McInnes, D. Mathalon, and M. Feldman. When Im feeling down, I tend to feel like most other people are happier than I am. As we mentioned, low levels of self-compassion tend to be associated with higher levels of depression, so if you discover some low spots in your self-compassion profile, dont be surprisedand dont beat yourself up for it. 324 References Hayes, S., and S. Smith. Our self-judgments often reflect our experience with significant individuals who were important in our upbringing. Sirois, F., R. Kittner, and J. Hirsch. 2012; Zettle, Rains, and Hayes 2011). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001897. The clerk said, You know what I mean? In the Self-Narrative column you might write: I said, Yeah, Im one of those hardheaded types. However, as we say in ACT: Just because you think it doesnt mean its real. Covey, S. 1989. In most ways, my life right now is close to my ideal. Then, you pause for a moment in your walk because something catches your eye. Learning to let things be without struggle or judgment will become a go-to skill on your life path. The last time you tried to go to school while working, you had trouble keeping up with your studies. Thus, depressed people tend to develop reasons that attribute responsibility for positive (mood inconsistent) outcomes to luck, chance, or the actions of others. Right! This quote by Steve Hayes, one of the cofounders of ACT, says it best: Love isnt everything; its the only thing. Dr. Robinson provides trainings in primary care behavioral health and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy all over the world, including Hong Kong, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the US. You are right if you guessed being an observer. Acceptance Workbook Pdf will sometimes glitch and take you a long time to try different solutions. Williams, J. M. 2008. Mindfulness 2: 59-67. Im privileged to have been a part of their unique life journeys. 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