A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters

Life is not a problem to be solved. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers an approach to living full and meaningful lives by embracing vulnerability and turning toward what causes pain. In this book, Steven C. Hayes, the originator and pioneering researcher of ACT, explains the psychological flexibility skills underlying this therapeutic approach. Research shows these skills are useful across mental health (anxiety, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, PTSD), physical health (chronic pain, diabetes, cancer), social processes (relationship issues, prejudice, stigma, domestic violence), and performance (sports, business, diet, exercise). Psychological flexibility works by addressing how the problem-solving mind tells us to avoid fear and hurt. But pain exists where we care. Running from vulnerability means running from what matters to us. By learning flexibility skills—noticing thoughts with curiosity, opening to emotions, attending to the present, perspective taking, discovering values, and building habits around what we want—we can live with meaning and purpose alongside pain when it exists. Beginning with Hayes's personal panic attack, this book combines scientific discovery with stories and practical advice for applying flexibility skills immediately.