ACT Mindful Mixing for Psychological Flexibility

I really like this video of Kevin Polk’s (humorous as ever) demonstration of Mixing – 5 Senses & Unwanted Mental Experiences as part of the ACT Matrix for Psychological Flexibility:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oXhQswfKBU

Yes this is a light-hearted video, however the practice of Mixing, Blending, or even Diluting unwanted emotions (co-occurring patterns of thought and body sensations) I have found to be a very helpful mindful practice.

Mixing can be seen through many ACT lenses, one that can be useful is to see the practice as part of the Acceptance or Expansion processes (Russ Harris uses the latter term) of ACT. If looking at Mixing in this way, it can be seen that it can follow Russ’s four basic steps of Expansion laid out in ‘The Happiness Trap’:

Step 1 - Observe (Notice)

To mix mindfully you first observe the current emotional content (5-senses + mental experience). An attitude of Scientific Curiosity is only way to observe fully and notice judgements as judgements (i.e. defused*).

Step 2 - Breathe (and connect with touch, sight, hearing, smelling and tasting)

Breathing is bringing an essential 5-sense experience into the mix. Breathing can be experienced as a very spacious and tactile sensation. Each breath essentially reaches into every cell in your body via the lungs and heart filtering and pumping oxygen throughout the body (mixing again). Alongside breathing for the full mix experience the other senses can be brought in.

Step 3 – Create Space

With the breath as a guide you can open up to the sense of space around and containing emotions. Space can be seen as a very tactile, visual, auditory, olfactory and gustatory experience. Notice and play with the sense of space through each of the 5-senses alongside the emotional sensation.

Step 4 – Allow

As your mind inevitably starts to judge and evaluate the emotion you are mixing, notice the hook* in this. Saying yes to what is, is coming back to observing both your 5-sense and mental experience in a defused* way. Saying YES to what is in your 5-senses and, for example, ‘noticing’ that you are ‘having the thought this feels awful’ and ‘thanking your mind’ for it’s input.

With time and practice the Mix becomes a practice that comes easier. It is like a dilution of emotion. Where dilution does not mean that an unwanted emotion goes away, it just means that there is much more to your experience in this moment than just the concentration of an unwanted emotion. As Kevin point out on the video even if it doesn’t go away, with the Mix you get something ‘different’. This can be the start of a journey toward letting go of the unworkable struggle with unwanted emotions.

Learning to put yourself first!

I'm currently reading 'Your Life On Purpose' by Mathey Mckay, John P. Forsyth and Georg H. Eifert. It really has helped me to clarify what's really important to me. Like something I always known, but hadn't been able to get enough distance to see and verbalise - let alone act on, this book has enabled me to see the value of putting my self-development first. Just like you attend to your own oxygen mask, before you help others, as the plane looses cabin pressure, (thankfully I haven't had to put this into practice yet). Not only do I now see how important this first step is towards increasing valued living, I can now see how vital self-compassion is to me and for me, just like oxygen.

Coming into contact with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in 2007, as a much needed evolution of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has helped me to notice more and more those times when I haven't been holding this value as a vital activity. I feel very grateful to be able to use ACT in my work as a Psychotherapist, and savour seeing how liberating ACT can be even for people who have been suffering for years and years, and who have tried everything else. I value helping people to cultivate their own self-compassion. I can only fully move towards this value by putting my own self-compassion first. Self-compassion for me is in question in how I do everything I do. Noticing I can slow down to a gentler pace in all activities that are important. Steve Hayes often talks about the need to hold values lightly, just as we can learn to hold thoughts lightly. Self-compassion is the how for me of holding lightly. It is learning to become more and more self-forgiving (plenty of opportunities for that, thanks mind!) Giving yourself self-compassion especially at times when your mind says you need bring out a big stick to yourself, is the most life enhancing thing you can do imho.