Towards And Away Moves: An ACT Metaphor

00:30

07:20

Towards And Away Moves: An ACT Metaphor

Rated

5

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

12

When we’re struggling with anxiety, stress, emotional overwhelm, difficult thoughts or feeling stuck, our behaviour can become organised around trying to escape what we’re experiencing inside. The Towards and Away framework, developed by psychologist Tobias Lundgren, offers a simple way of stepping back and noticing this process. In this extended exploration of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), we look more deeply at towards moves, away moves, emotional avoidance and the values that give our lives direction. Rather than judging our behaviour as good or bad, we become curious about where it is taking us. A practical exploration of mindfulness, psychological flexibility, emotional wellbeing and values-based living, helping us move from automatic reactions towards greater self-awareness, self-connection, meaning and intentional living.

Values Clarification Mindfulness Emotional Wellbeing Anxiety Stress Emotional Overwhelm

Meet your Teacher

Melbourne VIC, Australia

Meet your Teacher

Melbourne VIC, Australia

Transcript

Okay, So I want to give you something really simple that is helpful in helping us with meaningful connection. To unhook from stuff that is not so meaningful, To reconnect with stuff that is more meaningful. And it's this notion of Towards Moves. Versus away moves. And this comes from a body of science known as contextual psychology. And the psychologist Tobias Lundgren. Has worked really hard on being part of a body of science. That has 40 years of science. For it. And The model that sits upon that is ACT, Which is known as Acceptance Commitment Therapy. So this is coming from acceptance commitment therapy and it's about this notion of towards moves or away moves. So in terms of towards moves, We are constantly making moves, Right? We're getting out of bed, We're cooking breakfast, You might be drinking tea, Whatever. It is that you do, There's there's something in the service of that you're doing it. It could be. Hanging out with friends. Basically, A towards move is things that we say or do that enhance our lives, Right? So, You could say it like this, Towards moves. Effective life enhancing actions. That might sound a bit odd. However that sounds to you. Let's keep it really simple. Towards moves. So life enhancing behaviors. Towards moves. Moving towards the type of person that I want to be. In other words, Moving towards my values. In acceptance commitment therapy, It's about doing more towards moves. Now the reason we might have a model for acceptance commitment therapy. The reason we might well come into therapy in this way is because we do away moves and get caught up in away moves. Particularly when we're faced with challenges, We can engage in behaviors that move us away from our values, Away from the life that we want to live, Right? So like i said earlier with these towards moves let's just reverse that and just to make it really nice and simple, Away moves. So what did we say before, Life enhancing? Well, Away moves are life diminishing. They. . . Don't fulfill us. They're actions that we do that don't fulfill us. They are life-diminishing, They move us away from our values. The other thing I said before, With towards moves, Acting like the type of person I want to be, In terms of an away move, We're acting unlike the type of person that we want to be. Now, Here's the thing. This is part and parcel of the human condition. We get caught up in doing away moves even when they don't serve us in the longer term, Right? They're life-diminishing. They move us away from our values, Right? So we could say that we get hooked by thoughts and feelings that pull us into a way move. So we get hooked and pulled away into a way moves. To make this even clearer, We can use some examples here, Such as we might get caught up in. Distractions, Like meaningless distractions. We might avoid social situations that really we would like to be going to because it's in the service of our values, Right? We might take substances to escape certain feelings. We might get caught up in rumination and thinking about the conversation that we shouldn't have had, Etc, Etc, Etc. Right. So it's kind of like behaviors that are thinking behaviors and doing behaviors that really we don't really want to be doing deep down. And like I said, It's part of the human condition. ACT really helps us to break this down and go, Yeah, It's part of the human condition to do away moves. We get caught in patterns of behavior that don't serve us because we get hooked by difficult thoughts and feelings that pull us that way. So what this is about is doing more towards moves this is about unhooking from those thoughts and feelings that we get hooked by we unhook and then take action. Small actions towards moves could be as simple as like, You know, They don't have to be these big. Obvious kind of actions. It could be having a cup of tea, It could be contacting a friend, It could be taking a nap on your bed, Right? So I just wanted to make this nice and simple because what I want to give to you now is this notion of What is your day like? It's a little check-in. What is my day like today? What have I been doing? What am I doing right now? Is this a towards move or an away move? You're watching this video. If you've watched heaps and heaps and heaps of videos and it's distracting you from things that are important in your life, This could be an away move right now. But if this is something that's interesting you and you're like, Oh, That could actually help me. This could be a towards move for you right now. Yeah. So this is about. Being gently aware, Recognizing that we're human, Recognizing that we get caught in away moves, And as a result, To try and increase our towards moves. So Acceptance Commitment Therapy is about reducing or ceasing completely away moves that don't serve us, Right? In other words, To decrease away moves, Right? We can do this. Instead of focusing on all these away moves I'm doing, This is really bad. It's like, No, It's part of the human condition. To it to decrease away moves, Let me increase some towards moves. Right. Let me increase some towards moves. So I'll just leave you with that. I thought this video would be shorter, But it's a bit longer now, But I hope that makes sense. The fact that I've kind of gone over this to really consolidate something very simple, But potentially really, Really helpful for you. What are some towards moves that you do? What are some away moves that you do? Can you increase your towards moves? Thanks so much, Guys. And if you're interested, You could check out my profile. You could even check out the little micro course called the Acceptance Commitment Therapy micro course, If you like. And until then, Yeah, Have a good day and get noticing, Get noticing gently and go easy. Because then you're enhancing moments of meaningful connection. And you deserve that.