How ACT Builds Resilience, Emotional Regulation, and Value-Aligned Living

We all experience uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, which we often try to control or suppress, through a coping strategy called Experiential Avoidance (EA).

EA is linked to a variety of psychological and behavioural difficulties, despite offering short term relief, leading to potentially harmful long term consequences.

Typically individuals will engage in EA to escape or control negative internal states or experiences (thoughts, emotions, memories), leading to the development of common coping patterns such as substance use, social withdrawal, and risky behaviours. Frequent engagement in EA is associated with PTSD, increased hospital visits, depression, increased school dropouts and an overall decrease in quality of life.

Combined with environmental stressors such as grief, pain, racism or violence, EA can exacerbate psychological or behavioural difficulties.

Psychological Flexibility

Psychological flexibility is the capacity to engage with difficult internal experiences while still acting in alignment with your values.

Lack of psychological flexibility means we become fused with our thoughts, such as “This is my fault”, “I’m not good enough,” and we regularly engage in EA coping strategies that help us avoid or escape these unpleasant thoughts and associated feelings.

These patterns of - trigger -> unpleasant thought -> escape/avoidance behaviour - is shaped by our own individual histories of reinforcement, operant conditioning and modelling, which teach us how to interpret and respond to emotions.

While these patterns of responding may feel protective, they often lead to more distress and disconnection from what matters most.

The ACT Approach

Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) provides an alternative path. Instead of fighting discomfort, we learn to accept thoughts and feelings as they come. The goal is to notice them without judgement, and make the choice to take action aligned with our values.

Key processes include:

• Acceptance. A willingness to experience psychological discomfort, when choosing a value-aligned action.

• Defusion. Creating distance from thoughts; observing them rather than identifying with them.

  • Fusion: “I am a bad person”

  • Defusion: “I am having the thought that I’m a bad person”.

  This simple shift helps to reduce judgement and see thoughts as just thoughts, not facts.

• Mindfulness (Present Moment Awareness). Instead of arguing with thoughts and telling ourselves stories about the past or future, mindfulness brings attention back to the here and now. By practicing noticing exercises and engaging in the present, we help reduce EA and reinforce more adaptive coping.

• Values. Clarify what truly matters to you and develop meaningful, objective, measurable and realistic goals.

• Committed Action. Taking objective steps towards your values, even when it’s uncomfortable.

Why it Matters

ACT not only helps reduce EA, it helps to increase emotional regulation, resulting in decreased defensiveness, and improved communication in relationships (Nallepalli & Murugesan, 2025).

Using ACT also helps you to recognize the emotional distress of making the hard choices to live according to your values.

The practice of acceptance, defusion and mindfulness helps to decrease negative thoughts, improve resilience and foster a life that is aligned with what matters most.

Bottom Line

EA keeps us stuck and ACT helps us move forward. By accepting the discomfort, defusing from unhelpful thoughts, practicing mindfulness and taking committed action toward what matters most, we move towards better mental health, stronger resilience and a life aligned with your values.

Belisle, J. & Dixon, M.R. (2022). Relational behaviour and ACT: a Dynamic Relationship. Behavior Analysis in Practice. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-021-00599-z

Biglan, A., Hayes, S. C., & Pistorello, J. (2008). Acceptance and commitment: Implications for Preventative Science. Preventative Science. doi:10.1007/s11121-008-0099-4

Nallepalli, V. & Murugesan, K. S. (2025). Enhancing marital resilience through psychological flexibility: An acceptance and committment therapy-based case study. IAPS Journal of Practice in Mental Health. doi:10.4103/IJPMH.JPMH_6_25