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Nov 7, 2006

"Habits of thinking need not be forever. One of the most significant findings in psychology in the last twenty years is that individuals can choose the way they think." --Martin Seligman

Healing Through Acceptance of Pain

When he was 29, Steven Hayes had the first of a series of panic attacks. Today, at 57, he hasn't had a panic attack in a decade, and is a well-known psychologist and author of 27 books. "Get Out of Your Mind & Into Your Life", is his most recent work. Its first sentence is: "People suffer." But in a radical departure from traditional cognitive therapy, Hayes and other top researchers are focusing less on how to manipulate the content of our thoughts and more on how to change their context -- to modify the way we see thoughts and feelings so they can't control our behavior. Hayes and the others teach mindfulness, the practice of observing thoughts without getting entangled in them. This article from Time delves deeper into his approach.