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This entry will discuss what to do before doing a technique.
Recipes
- Acknowledge the Urge. Check in with your values. Then Surf the Urge The Happiness Trap (pp. 116-117)[1]
- Stop - Shift out of Autopilot. Observe your thoughts and feelings. Focus on your breathing for a few breaths. Expand your awareness to your whole body. Choose which action you want to do. SOBER
- Acknowledge that you don't need to give in. Gratitude breathing. Tell yourself that your urge wants you do something which is only good in the short term, but you won't do it since it's bad in the long term. Then Connect via an act of kindness. FRC
- Step back and observe. Realize what is happening. (i.e. be on the alert for urges, so that you catch them early.). Take a few breaths. Connect to your values. Respond in a healthy way. STAR
- ↑ So when it comes to handling your urges effectively, the first step is simply to acknowledge what you’re feeling. Just silently say to yourself, “I’m having the urge to do X.” The second step is to check in with your values: “Will acting on this urge help me be the person I want to be? Will it help me take my life in the direction I want?” If the answer is yes, then go ahead and act, using that urge to guide you and give you momentum. But if the answer is no, then instead take some action that’s more in line with your values... So what do we do if an urge pushes us in one direction and our values pull us in another? We don’t want to struggle with that urge because then it’s hard to focus on effective action. So rather than try to resist, control, or suppress it, the aim in ACT is to make room for it, to give it enough time and space to expend all its energy—in other words, to practice expansion. And one marvelously useful technique for this is known as “urge surfing.” Harris, Russ. The Happiness Trap (pp. 116-117). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.