Understanding Experiential Avoidance

14th Jul 2013 | Leave a remark Understanding Experiential Avoidance Experiential avoidance is so widespread to everyone experiencing profession paralysis and yet so exceptional that it needs some closer attention. Here’s the formal definition: “Attempts to keep away from ideas, feelings, recollections, physical sensations, and different inside experiences even when doing so creates harm in the long-run“. Hayes, Strosahl, Wilson, 1999. Why would humans try this? The want to avoid troublesome ideas and feelings is a byproduct of the symbolic properties of language. Language teaches us to substitute a ‘real’ occasion for a mental occasion, and in so doing to deal with the psychological event as actual. Just as we learned to keep away from lions on the Savanna plain, so we realized to keep away from the fear of lions. Fear gave us the message â€" time to move. This makes sense when fearing for our lives, however at present few of us are operating from lions. At least where I reside. That’s the problem with language. It has a tendency to gener alise to other contexts and this means we start to keep away from not just worry in some contexts however ‘adverse’ ideas and emotions in many alternative contexts. This is a problem as a result of negative thoughts and feelings apply particularly in areas we care most about. Therefore, if we attempt to avoid tough ideas and emotions we danger having to keep away from the things we care most about. Ironically, the more durable we attempt to avoid difficult ideas and emotions, the extra highly effective they become. So avoiding anxiousness tends to make anxiety more necessary, not less. This results in a paradoxical effect, where language has the capability to scale back bodily threats however to extend our psychological pain. As Wilson et al. (2001) say: “The paradox is…that a species that has the fewest contacts with direct sources of ache…via language is ready to endure with a degree of depth, fidelity and pervasiveness that is actually unimaginable in the nonhuman world . We can judge ourselves and discover ourselves to be wanting; we will think about ideals and find the present unacceptable by comparison; we can fear about imagined futures; we will undergo with the data that we are going to die.” This is the place experiential avoidance comes in. Humans are tempted to attempt to avoid adverse thoughts and feelings wherever they occur. And it is a technique which might work extremely well in some contexts. For instance, having a drink at a celebration is a standard method of feeling less nervous â€" that’s experiential avoidance. But it could possibly additionally intervene with extra essential aspects of life. For example: So what can we do to beat experiential avoidance? Well, that’s for one more post. But for now, it could be greatest to think about a different aim. Instead of eager to ‘feel better’, perhaps we could possibly be keen to feel better? The thoughts and feelings we are avoiding inform us they're the same factor as a bear. Language has taught us to behave as if that were so. But language is no more than a tool, and it's time to put the software again in its box. Career Change, Career Development, Developing Coaches - ACT Training, Getting Unstuck teaching Tags: ACT in coaching, Decision making, Flexible considering: using ACT in profession change, Positive psychology, Psychology of profession change, Step 1: Understanding stuckness, Step 5: Making a plan and stepping into action Your email address won't be revealed. Required fields are marked * Comment Name * Email * Website Save my name, email, and web site on this browser for the next time I remark. This site uses Akismet to cut back spam. Learn how your remark knowledge is processed. « Lazy, Incompetent Babies... Truth vs Workability (visitor po... »