Managing Anxiety Through Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Holistic Approaches to Psychology
Anxiety is a natural part of life, yet it can feel overwhelming and even debilitating when it dominates our thoughts and actions. Many therapeutic approaches aim to help individuals manage anxiety, yet at Center for Conscious Counseling we approach all our interventions with a fundamentally holistic approach while grounding ourselves in established treatment approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and others.
If a “holistic approach” seems unfamiliar to you, don’t worry. Essentially it’s simply referring to integrating a variety of different perspective in an effort to serve you, the client, in the best way possible.
This perspective and this approach comes about because human lives are complex and the challenges we face each day and which contribute to the anxiety symptoms can come from a variety of different places in our lives. Taking a “holistic” perspective is simply a way of trying to understand and anticipate the many different factors and life situations that can contribute to problems people experience such as anxiety.
When we can see what’s giving rise to a problem like anxiety more clearly, our efforts at intervention can be more powerful and stand a better chance of helping you to restore a sense of peace and balance more effectively.
This post explores how a holistic approach coupled with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can be beneficial. We will highlight some of the key elements of ACT integrated with holistic perspectives. We will note their similarities and differences and then provide some practical exercises that you can use today to build resilience and live more fully in the present moment.
Understanding Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT is a behavioral therapy rooted in mindfulness and cognitive flexibility. Whereas most treatment interventions seek to help you develop “mastery” over your anxious thoughts and feelings in an effort to try to “control” them, ACT emphasizes helping individuals accept their anxious thoughts. The core idea is that suffering arises not from the experience of anxiety itself, but from our attempts to avoid or fight against it that are often present in effort to try to “control” emotional experiences such as anxiety.
Key Principles of ACT:
Cognitive Diffusion: Learning to observe thoughts without becoming entangled in them.
Acceptance: Allowing anxious emotions to exist without resistance.
Present Moment Awareness: Engaging fully in the here and now.
Self-as-Context: Understanding that thoughts and emotions do not define who we are.
Values-Based Living: Taking committed action toward meaningful goals despite discomfort.
ACT teaches that anxiety itself isn’t the enemy; avoidance is. Avoidance, in this case is, making an effort to not have an experience, trying to eliminate or control the emotional experience in an effort to not have it. The message inside of ACT is not to eliminate anxiety but to change our relationship with it. We cannot eliminate an emotional experience nor can we successfully suppress it out of existence. Such efforts produce immeasurable suffering and distress. The message inside of ACT is to change our relationship with emotional experiences such as accepting them as a part of a human life. Learning to tolerate helps to build the skills needed to tolerate emotionally distressing experiences rather than attempting to resist or avoid them. When we stop attempting to win a battle of control with our own emotional life, we can allow ourselves to live a life that is free and in alignment with our values.
Understanding A Holistic Approach to Anxiety
A holistic approach to psychology is based on the view that psychological phenomena are most usefully studied as wholes. It’s view is that humans are biological, psychological, and sociocultural totalities that cannot be fully explained in terms of the individual components parts. As a result, a holistic approach to psychology is not a school of psychology but a perspective that informs the theories, methodologies and practices of psychology. It is integrative rather than placing emphasis on the separate elements of the human experience with a desire to develop mastery and control over them.
This view of a whole shares much with Eastern spiritual traditions that also inform how we understand ourselves in relationship to the larger picture and context of our life. A holistic perspective emphasizes the cultivation of self-awareness, presence, and detachment from identification with the mental narratives that are so often associated with human suffering. Unlike traditional enlightenment which have much in common with a holistic perspective, a holistic perspective attempts to foster a broad-based understanding and an ability to see the interconnected influence of the various parts that make up a whole.
Key Principles of Holistic Approaches:
Non-Dual Awareness: Seeing beyond the illusion of separateness and identifying with a broader awareness rather than the mind grounded in ego (ego-mind identified as .
Detachment from Thought: Recognizing thoughts as passing phenomena rather than absolute truths.
Radical Acceptance: Fully embracing the present moment without resistance or labeling it as "good" or "bad."
Effortless Flow: Acting from a state of deep presence rather than effortful control.
Practical Enlightenment does not seek to control anxiety but to dissolve identification with it. Anxiety is seen as part of the transient play of consciousness, something to witness rather than react to.
Similarities Between ACT and a Holistic Approach
Emphasis on the Present Moment: Both approaches stress the importance of being in the here and now, rather than getting lost in anxious projections about the future.
Acceptance of Anxiety: Neither ACT nor a holistic approach seeks to eliminate anxiety but rather to change our relationship with it.
Diffusion from Thought: Both approaches encourage a shift in perspective where thoughts are understood as mental events rather than truths about who we are and what our lives are to be that must be understood and obeyed.
Differences Between ACT and Practical Enlightenment
Psychological Flexibility vs. Expanded Awareness: ACT emphasizes taking action in alignment with values despite anxiety, while a holistic approach attempts to foster a deeper detachment from self-identification with the thoughts that are so frequently associated with anxiety. This broader perspective can help alleviate the anxiety and distress associated with anxiety symptoms and thoughts rooted in negative self-evaluations.
In the end, it’s the benefit of an expanded awareness, whether occurring in a standard therapy intervention or in combination with something like a holistic approach, that makes the difference. The end point is getting our of out head or being able to release our attachment to the content of our thoughts that are so frequently associated with ramping up emotional distress rather than providing is with greater peace.
Commitment to Values vs. Surrender to Flow: ACT encourages actively committing to life choices despite fear, whereas a holistic approach advocates expanding your vision to include understanding your life as occurring and unfolding in a larger context beyond those defined by our thoughts and beliefs alone. A holistic approach has long been associated with more favorable treatment outcomes. This arises from the holistic perspective’s increased ability to address the underlying factors that contribute to the symptoms. As well as integrating with other factors such as physical, social, economic and spiritual factors that can also shed light on causes as well as solutions that reside in he overall context in which someone lives, works, and has interactions with the world at large.
Western Behavioral Science vs. Holism’s Inclusion of Eastern Wisdom Ideas: ACT is rooted in empirical psychology, whereas a holistic approach included and embraces ideas drawn from spiritual traditions such as Zen Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta.
Three Powerful Exercises to Manage Anxiety
1. Observer Self Meditation (Blending ACT and Holistic Approaches)
Purpose: To cultivate detachment from anxious thoughts and develop a broader sense of self-awareness.
Instructions:
Find a quiet place to sit and close your eyes.
Take a few deep breaths, settling into the present moment.
Observe your thoughts as if they were clouds passing in the sky.
Instead of saying "I am anxious," reframe it as "I notice the experience of anxiety."
Shift perspective: Imagine yourself as the sky—vast, open, and unaffected by the passing clouds (thoughts and emotions). Rest in this awareness for a few minutes, recognizing that thoughts come and go, but your true self remains unchanged.
Takeaway: This exercise combines ACT’s cognitive diffusion with a form of non-dual awareness characteristic of Eastern spiritual traditions that emphasize an expansion beyond the ideas and , allowing you to experience anxiety without being consumed by it.
2. The Willingness Scale (ACT Approach)
Purpose: To increase psychological flexibility by shifting from avoidance to acceptance.
Instructions:
Identify an area where anxiety holds you back (e.g., public speaking, social interactions).
Rate your willingness (0-10) to experience discomfort while engaging in the activity.
Ask yourself, "What small step can I take that aligns with my values, even if anxiety is present?"
Gradually expose yourself to the situation, increasing your willingness over time.
Takeaway: This exercise helps you move forward in life despite anxiety, fostering resilience and value-driven action.
3. Surrender to the Now (Practical Enlightenment Approach)
Purpose: To transcend identification with anxiety by fully surrendering to the present moment.
Instructions:
Sit comfortably and take a deep breath.
Bring awareness to the physical sensations of anxiety without labeling them.
Drop all resistance—do not try to change the feeling, analyze it, or push it away.
Ask yourself, "What if this moment is exactly as it should be?"
Let go of any internal struggle and simply allow everything to be as it is.
Takeaway: By fully accepting the present moment, anxiety loses its grip. This is a core practice in Practical Enlightenment, teaching us that peace arises from deep surrender.
Conclusion
Both Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Holistic Approaches to Anxiety offer a wide variety of ways to manage anxiety. ACT provides a structured, value-driven approach that helps individuals take meaningful action despite their fears. Holistic Perspectives, on the other hand, invites us to see past the narratives so commonly a symptom feature of anxiety and encourages relinquishing our attachment to these narratives seeing them as merely passing phenomenon, not truth statements about who you are.
By integrating both perspectives, we can cultivate a balanced and holistic way of engaging with life—one that embraces both committed action and deep surrender. Whether you lean toward psychological flexibility or spiritual detachment, these tools empower you to live with greater ease, presence, and purpose.
Final Thought: Anxiety does not have to define you. By changing your relationship with it, you can step into a life of greater freedom and authenticity.