Acceptance Commitment Therapy with Empower Counseling: The power of living your values. Dealing with stress and anxiety can be paralyzing, keeping you from accomplishing what you want to accomplish in life. It can be absolutely debilitating.
Running from and avoiding anxiety through distraction is a temporary solution at best. When you stop distracting and go back to trying to live your life anxiety finds you, getting stronger and stronger.
So what can you do to get past anxiety and finally get to the life you want to have? A life in which you can easily make decisions and let them go…a life in which you do not second guess yourself…a life in which you are free to do the things you want to do?
Acceptance Commitment Therapy offers several components that come together to help lessen the control anxiety has over you.
One of the integral components of Acceptance Commitment Therapy for anxiety is living your personal values.
How does Acceptance Commitment Therapy Empower Counseling in Birmingham, Alabama help you live your personal values?
First, Kathryn, with Empower Counseling will help you assess the importance and satisfaction of each of the major areas of your life.
Then we will gain clarity about what you value in each area of life.
In the back of our minds we know what is important to us in life. However, the front of our minds are full with our “to do” lists and the business of everyday life. We don’t think about our values. We don’t have time…or don’t find the time.
The Power of Living your personal values:
Even before I had discovered the Stanford study mentioned in the last post, I was helping clients gain clarity around and live their values. What I noticed, in client after client, is that when they took action toward what they valued, they achieved incredible results.
I noticed that clients were…
- Much less anxious
- More satisfied with their lives
- Had more self-esteem
- Felt productive
And
5. Had more self-confidence.
Why does this happen? Why is living your values through Acceptance Commitment Therapy with Empower Counseling getting these kind of results?
When you are focused on what is important to you and what it takes to get there, you are no longer focused on fear, anxiety and what you do not want in life. Therefore, focusing on your values, reduces anxiety and its symptoms.
Like I said before, we might keep our values in the back of our minds but when we move them to the front and act toward them this causes us to be more satisfied with our lives.
Living what you value, increases self-esteem because you like who you are when you are consistent with what is important to you. When we are incongruent, our actions do not match our values, we do not like who we are.
Anxiety can keep us paralyzed, afraid to take action, afraid to make a mistake. When you are clear about what you value and know what actions will bring you closer to your values, you are more likely to be free to take action, without fear of making mistakes.
And finally, how does living your values increase self-confidence?
Anxiety makes us feel like we are not ready…not ready to do the things we want to do. Our anxious brains tell us we must do this, before we can do that, and we must feel ready before we can take action. This is simply a mind trick our anxiety plays on us. When you are anxious, you will never feel ready to take action toward the scary, tough things you want to accomplish. The truth is, you must act toward what you value, then you will feel ready.
When you have the courage to take the action to move closer to your values, you will begin to trust that you can do hard things. Then your level of self-trust and self-confidence goes up.
Living youR values through Acceptance Commitment Therapy with Empower Counseling moves you away from anxiety and toward the life you want to have.
Anxiety therapy through Acceptance Commitment Therapy is not the only service we offer at our Birmingham area counseling clinic. We offer depression counseling and therapy for difficult life transitions to clients in Mountain Brook, Homewood, Vestavia, Hoover and other surrounding areas of Birmingham. We offer in-person counseling for teens, college students, professionals, and young adults. We also offer online counseling to any client within the state of Alabama. Reach out to Empower Counseling.
Contact Empower Counseling today at 205-730-6570 or reach out through the Home Page of our website.
More on personal values here by James Clear.
Other Blog Posts about ACT:
ACCEPTANCE COMMITMENT THERAPY WITH EMPOWER COUNSELING CAN HELP YOU RIGHT NOW
ACT THERAPY WITH EMPOWER COUNSELING CAN HELP YOU NAVIGATE YOUR ANXIETY SYMPTOMS