You find yourself facing a painful situation, but don't you have the emotional resources to overcome it?

Expectations have been placed upon you, to fight against pain and difficult situations and conquer them. Unfortunately, you have fallen into a trap.

Pain, anger, fear, sadness and shame are notoriously difficult emotions to manage as they have been forged by nature to protect us.

Fighting these emotions with the so-called wisdom that you have received only makes the situation worse - chances are that you have not even noticed this, as you have misplaced your faith in such 'wisdom'.

It is natural for humans to suffer. However, suffering is not just about physical or psychological pain. People also suffer from emotional pain, doubts in self-worth, uncomfortable feelings, and painful memories. Because we dread or worry about suffering, we do everything we can to avoid such feelings. We constantly seek to minimize our suffering.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focusses on the problem of human suffering, but it also deals with much deeper matters. It addresses the understanding of human suffering as an important factor in realising a good life. This new form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) asks important questions such as "What is my real purpose in life?"

YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK IF YOU HAVE SUFFERED ANY OF THE FOLLOWING IN THE LAST 3 MONTHS:

- Anxiety, depression or anger, Intense or uncontrollable emotional explosions

- Instability in interpersonal relationships and self-esteem, Concerns about abandonment

- Feeling desperately misunderstood, Feelings of helplessness and despair, Self-harm and notions of suicide

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN FROM THIS BOOK:

• You will learn to notice your thoughts, images or memories, recognising them for the products of the mind that they are, and not absolute realities.
• You will learn to Look at your own experience from a privileged position, from above, decentralized, promoting the perception of your own emotional experience.
• You will learn to give up control of your thoughts and let them go, give them space, sort through them and thus diminish the influence and the power that they wield.

The progression of human suffering can look like this:

- Pain, resulting in negative thinking or self-doubt.

- Negative thinking or self-doubt resulting in negative feelings such as sadness or depression.

- Sadness or depression that could lead to stress or muscle tension. Stress or muscle tension that could lead to more pain.

- Pain, resulting in more negative thinking and self-doubt.

As you can see, it's a vicious cycle, and the longer this cycle continues, the more we become out of balance.

We can do something about human suffering when we become aware of the cycle and learn how to respond differently to our pain.