ACT Meadow
ACT: Turning Toward the Full Catastrophe
In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, we don’t try to erase the “full catastrophe” of being human — the losses, the anxiety, the love, the boredom, the beauty, the grief. Instead, we practice turning toward what is here, while gently moving in the direction of what matters.
You are not a problem to be solved. You are a living process, unfolding moment by moment. This meadow is a place to practice three moves: making room for experience, stepping back from sticky thoughts, and walking toward your values in tiny steps.
1. Full Catastrophe Check-In
ACT doesn’t ask you to like what you are feeling. It asks you to stop waging war against it, just long enough to notice: this, too, belongs to the story of my life. Acceptance here does not mean approval or giving up. It means gently dropping the struggle with reality long enough to breathe.
Practice: Name the Weather, Not the Sky
2. Defusion Playground
In ACT, cognitive defusion means stepping back from thoughts instead of being fused with them. When you’re fused, “I’m a failure” feels like a fact. When you defuse, it becomes: “I’m noticing the thought that I’m a failure.” Same words, different relationship.
Practice: “I’m Having the Thought That...”
3. Values & Tiny Commitments
ACT is not just “sit with it.” It is also and then what? Values are the directions you want your life to lean toward — even while anxiety, grief, or numbness ride along. You can’t control all the thoughts and sensations that arise, but you can choose one tiny move that points toward what matters.