Minds

7th Aug 2010 | Comments Off on Minds â€" a User’s Guide Minds â€" a User’s Guide I reside in a close to fixed state of anxiety, but what am I actually anxious about? Often the answer is concern. Fear of what? Failure maybe. Or of looking like a failure. And yet, my experience of failure is definitely very rare. In truth I actually have very little direct contact with the experience of real pain. Yet the misery of ‘failure’ is so tightly woven into my mind that seemingly unrelated occasions remind me of its possibility: Speak to a successful friend? You are failing as compared . Hear of a new restaurant opening? Why didn’t you do this? Read about Naomi Campbell. You’ve never acquired a blood diamond! My ridiculous thoughts has given me the exciting alternative to experience anxiousness, fear and shame every day without experiencing it directly. The considered failing is sufficient to feel distress. Wilson et al. (2001) summed up the trap language sets for us: “Thus comes the paradox that a species that has by far the fewest contacts with direct sources o f pain… by way of language is able to undergo with a degree of intensity, fidelity and pervasiveness that is literally unimaginable in the nonhuman world… Because of [language], we will decide ourselves and find ourselves to be wanton; we are able to imagine beliefs and find the current to be unacceptable by comparison; we will reconstruct the past; we can fear about imagined futures; we will endure with the information that we are going to die.” Ring any bells? Career Change, Developing Coaches - ACT Training, Getting Unstuck teaching Tags: ACT in teaching, cognitive fusion, Dealing with troublesome ideas and feelings, Experiential avoidance, Flexible considering: using ACT in career change, Headstuck, Step 1: Understanding stuckness « You Don't Need a Big Idea... Gaugain, Acceptance and Mid-Ca... » Check your inbox or spam folder now to confirm your subscription.