Hello and welcome back to the channel. In this video I am looking at an acceptance technique. This obviously fits in the acceptance part of ACT, or if you work with children and adolescents this is sometimes referred to as let it be.
I have other videos on what I mean by acceptance so I am not going to go over that again here, in this video I want to focus on an exercise.
Quite a view of the previous exercises have been quite ‘word heavy’, so this one is great for people who like to use images or visualisation. This is an exercise that involves physicalising and its a bit of a mish mash of other similiar exercises that are out there.
Similiar to previous exercises I would like you to try and bring to mind something that has been a little bit stressful for you. It could be a situation youve been in recently, it could be something to do with another person or some kind of event that is happening in your life right now. So please take a moment and bring something to mind, if you need to you can pause the video.
I would like you to try and get into a good posture. So sitting up right, feet on the floor.
Try and relax your shoulders, and your neck and your jaw.
Now gently close your eyes and bring some attention to your physical body. Notice how you are sitting. Notice how your back might be touching the chair, notice your feet on the ground.
Now lets widen that noticing. Notice any sensations through your body. Scan from the top of your head all the way down to your toes. Notice any tension that maybe in your body, and also try to notice your body as whole unit sitting here in this chair.
Now lets narrow the focus. See if you can notice your stomach. Notice the sensations around your stomach as your naturally breath in and out. Not forcing the breath, not changing anything, just notice what is normal for you.
When, and notice I didnt say if, when your mind starts wondering to something else, just notice that and gently bring it back to your stomach. Good.
Now I want you to think of the situation or stressful event I mentioned at the beginning.
Bring that to mind. See if you can really experience it and get yourself into that situation.
And as you think about it do you notice anything in your body changing?
Scan through your body again, and notice any changes that might take place as you bring this situation to mind. It might be tension somewhere, you might feel a twitch in one of your muscles, you might notice yourself taking deeper, longer or shorter breaths than normal. You might become more aware of your heart beating.
If you do notice something then try and locate whereabouts in your body it is.
If it feels unpleasant then try and notice it for what it is. Its a physical sensation you are feeling right now. Dont try and struggle with it, dont try and get rid of it or push it away, see if you can be a bit curious about it and spend a short bit of time with it.
If you notice it changing in anyway then allow that to happen. Its not the aim of this exercise, dont expect it to change, but if it does, again just notice what happens to it.
And if if you can, see if you can imagine this feeling as a physical object that is no longer inside you, but is now in the room in front of you.
If this had a shape, what shape would it be?
If this had a size, how big would it be?
It his had a colour, what colour would it be?
If this had a power, how powerful would it be?
It his had a weight, How much would it weigh?
If this had a speed, how fast would it go?
If had a texture, what would it feel like if you could touch it?
If it could hold water, how much volume of water would it hold?
And now after a few moments of imagining what this object would look like, see if you can invite it back into your body, as it does belong to you, and again scan your body to see if you can locate whereabouts in your body you experience it. Where is it? And again, experience it for what it is.
And now lets bring our attention to the stomach. To the sensation of breathing in and out.
And lets expand that awareness once again to our body sitting here in this chair, and now bringing the awareness back into the room and when you feel ready please open your eyes.
Lets just take a breath.
How did you find that? Everyone has different experiences to this. There are no right or wrong experiences. Some people feel nothing and that is absolutely fine.
Some people notice that when they started thinking of their stressful situation that there is a reaction inside their body and they can pin point that or notice it moving around.
Could you imagine it as a physical object? And if you could what was it like inviting back into you?
Remember we arent trying to get rid of anything here, despite how unpleasant it might be. We are building up our willingness to have the experience as it is, without trying to get rid of it. Instead of the emotion being here (hold hands up) and us getting all tangled up in it, maybe this exercise gets us to here (hands further out) where we have a bit more flexibility and different perspective of it so its not getting in the way so much, so we can do more of what we want to in life in the presence of unhelpful thoughts, feelings and sensations.
Thank you for taking the time to watch this video and I hope you found it helpful. I have plenty more videos on the way so I would really appreciate it if you subscribe as that really does help support the channel. Thanks, take care and make life meaningful. Good bye.
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