From Avoidance to Acceptance: A New Way to Live with Anxiety with Kelly Wilson
The One You Feed
Seeing Others’ Hidden Hardships
Kelly describes exercises to notice suffering in strangers and the prevalence of unshared suicidal thoughts.
In this episode, Kelly Wilson explains how to move from avoidance to acceptance: a new way to live with anxiety. He delves into how our vulnerabilities show us what matters to us, and that the goal isn’t to win a war inside. It’s to keep coming back to the next honest action that moves you towards what matters. That is at the core of acceptance and commitment therapy. Not chasing perfect feelings, but choosing the next right move towards your values, again and again.
Exciting News!!!Coming in March, 2026, my new book, How a Little Becomes a Lot: The Art of Small Changes for a More Meaningful Life is now available for pre-orders!
Key Takeaways:
- Exploration of psychological struggles, particularly anxiety, and their impact on life.
- Introduction to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and its core principles.
- Discussion of the six core processes of ACT: present moment awareness, cognitive defusion, acceptance, values, committed action, and self as context.
- Examination of the relationship between vulnerability and personal growth.
- Critique of traditional diagnostic labels and their limitations in understanding psychological experiences.
- Emphasis on the importance of values in guiding meaningful actions and decisions.
- Insights into the nature of human suffering and the commonality of psychological pain.
- The concept of redemption and its role in personal development and therapy.
- Reframing commitment as a moment-to-moment process rather than a rigid promise.
- Encouragement of compassion and understanding in the face of psychological challenges.
If you enjoyed this conversation with Kelly Wilson, check out these other episodes:
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