A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters

sempre é melhor ler no original, mas acho que ajuda saber que tem em português

I don’t recall where I had learned about this book but it’s a good read and I highly recommend it. The book starts out by stating a problem:"Life should be getting easier, but it’s not. It’s a paradox of the modern world. At the very moment that science and technology are providing us previously unimagined longevity, health, and social interaction, too many of us struggle to live meaningful, peaceful lives full of love and contribution…Every day, someone who seems to have a good life decides to eat a bottle of pills rather than continue one more day.How can this be?I believe it it because we have not risen to the challenges of being human in the modern world. Some of the very things we have been doing over the last hundred years to foster human prosperity have created our conundrum. Take the case of innovations in technology. Each step forward—radio to TV to the Internet to the smartphone—has created greater mental and social challenges, and our culture and minds haven’t adjusted rapidly enough in effective and empowering ways.As a result of our technology, we are all exposed to a constant diet of horror, drama, and judgment. In addition, many of us are left feeling overwhelmed and threatened by the rapid pace of change."- A Liberated Mind (2019, p. 3-4)Along with the problem, Hayes gives a solution that behavioral science has developed. This was something that Hayes and his colleagues have studied a small det of skills for over 35 years and, as a result of observing things that people do (ex: why some individuals experience various “positive” emotions and others only a few). The set of skills are combined to give us psychological flexibility.Before one thinks there is only a certain type of individual who can learn how to pivot, please note this is not true. I have used psychological flexibility with clients by having them to write down their values (not goals—there is a difference) and asked them if they are willing to focus on their values instead of what The Dictator (as in their thoughts) is telling them to focus on. I also teach clients about defusion—what to do when The Dictator (intrusive/negative thoughts) start to come into focus instead of their values. It’s something one does to retrain the mind but, as the book title says, it is worth it because it is liberating.

The new book by Steven Hayes is the culmination of a lifetime’s research and clinical practice. It provides readers with a how-to guide to psychological flexibility, the ability to do what matters, no matter what. It is also a deeply personal book. Read it and it might profoundly change your life. I know, because Steve’s work has profoundly changed my life and that of the people I most care about.In the first part of the book, Steven Hayes describes how his personal struggles with anxiety and panic disorder yielded key insights into human psychology that would eventually lead him to develop Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is an evidence-based approach that has had a profound and lasting impact and changed the face of psychotherapy. For years Steve struggled with anxiety. This fight gradually engulfed his personal and professional life. Then one night, in the middle of his most frightening panic attack, Steve discovered that as much as his mind could urge him to rush to the emergency room, it couldn’t make him do it. An observer part of him noticed the ongoing drama of the panic attack, and chose to regain control of his life rather than continue surrendering it to anxiety. As a clinical psychologist and researcher, Steve made it his life’s purpose to investigate what psychological processes his insight were rooted in and how to turn them into a new science-based path to human liberation.Over the next forty years, Steve became the originator of a new evidence-based approach to cognitive-behavioral therapy. He also helped develop Relational Frame Theory (RFT), a new way to understand human language and cognition. RFT describes what makes language a double-edged sword. We owe it both our uniquely human ability to control the world outside our skin, and our uniquely human ability to suffer—even in the midst of plenty. In a highly relatable way, weaving personal recollections, illuminating accounts of research and experiential explorations, Steve guides his readers through how our minds’ abilities to relate everything to everything undergirds much mental suffering. Crucially, he demonstrates how traditional methods such as trying to understand the historical roots of our difficulties, regulating emotion or disputing unhelpful thought patterns can get us stuck. Far from the path to liberation, these attempts more often entangle us in rigid storytelling and emotional avoidance. They can make what we try not to think about ever more mentally present while diminishing our ability to lead a vital and fulfilling life. ACT in these energy-draining traps, readers are invited to discover six crucial pivots that can help transform the energy of the struggle into the source of a vital life.Lest you think that RFT is but a new fad in psychology, it has over 30 years of research behind it demonstrating it can help children with autism and development disabilities acquire crucial language, perspective-taking and empathy skills. It can also help increase IQ through the deliberate training of the basic relations that RFT shows underlie much of complex human cognitive abilities.The second part of the book takes readers onto a practical exploration of six pivots that can help our lives move from stuckness to flexibility. Rooted in six fundamental human yearnings, these pivots are key to liberating our minds from their mental shackles. By learning to distance from our mental chatter and better notice where particular thoughts patterns would take us, we can meet our yearning for coherence—not at the level of dry logic as our minds would push us to, but at the more fundamental level of what truly works for our lives. Through acquiring a broader sense of self, free from the narrow limitations of ego and connecting to our fellow humans, we can meet our yearning for belonging. By compassionately accepting difficult experience, we can meet our yearning for feeling. By mindfully focusing our attention to the present moment and what matters, we can meet our yearning for orientation. By contacting and embodying our most deeply held values, we can meet our yearning to create meaning. Finally, by deliberately engaging in actions in line with our personal values, we can meet our yearning for control and competence. Together, these six skills combine to help us pivot toward psychological flexibility, which turns out to be a meta-skill lying at the core of optimal human functioning.The third part of the book illustrates how to apply the skills thus far practiced to the broad range of life challenges: adopting and keeping healthy behaviors, facing up to mental disorders, nurturing relationships, helping our children grow, combating abuse and overcoming prejudice. It also shows how to use ACT to improve work and sports performance, overcome procrastination and foster learning. ACT can also help nurture spirituality, cultivate forgiveness and face up to chronic illness, disability and cancer. The book concludes with how ACT could contribute to social transformation.A Liberated Mind is the most comprehensive exploration of ACT so far, written in the distinct voice of its main originator. It explores ACT’s scientific roots and place in the broader scientific field in a language anyone can understand. Meaningfully, the book offers a deeply personal account of Steve Hayes’s personal and scientific path to liberation from the mind-stoked suffering that makes up our human condition. Steve’s heart resonates in every page. I have known Steve for over 12 years and reading the book felt like an intimate conversation with this towering figure of 21st century psychology.

I’ve just finished A Liberated Mind by Steven Hayes. I couldn’t put it down, well ok I did a number of times, including to pause as a memory popped up which I observed and noticed some dots joined together, and to do some of the exercises. It is a powerful and beautifully written book.I say I’ve finished it yet I haven’t really, what I have done is read it cover to cover and done some of the exercises along the way. I’m going to be doing the exercises I haven’t yet done and creating myself a plan of exercises to incorporate into life as I keep exploring & learning more about acceptance & commitment therapy (ACT).ACT has been part of my life a little while and I’ve used aspects in clinic with compassion focused therapy, though I’ve not used ACT daily myself. It’s companion for me is Compassionate Mind Training (CMT) (Compassion Focused Therapy in the therapy setting) which I have woven into daily life over the last few years and into clinic. Having immersed myself into the book the last three days and done some of the exercises I can see it would be helpful for me to weave ACT into my daily life too.I am a Physiotherapist & Coach who helps people with neurological conditions and those struggling with persistent pain (chronic pain) and know that what I’ve learned, and am learning, will have many benefits in clinic as well as for me personally. I live with persistent pain and usually live well despite pain, however this year I was struggling with some changes, many things in this book have helped and I’ve dropped the rope (for now!).This book has given me clarity, information and tools to use for myself and the people I work with. I know what I have learnt, and will continue to learn, will help me, my family, friends and those I work with in clinic every day. I will be sharing learning in little ways as best I can.If you like me value living the best you can, following a life aligned with your values, understanding what it is to be human, and learning to dance through life with flexibility then you will love this book.This book is packed full of wisdom, it’s beautifully written, it creates a sense of wonder and curiosity and it connects deeply. I am grateful for reading this book for many reasons.I am finding words are escaping me to sum it up effectively so here’s my main summary...WOW!

I genuinely think the world would be a better place if everyone would read this book. It's full of practical tools and techniques to help with almost any area in life, by relying on decades of research in evidence-based psychology. Steve has a unique, kind, and compassionate voice. He has dedicated his life towards helping others, and this is reflected throughout the whole book. If you are human, you need to read this book!