Re: ACT Observer Exercise on an MP3 for home use

[Guest guest]

Hi Randy,

Thanks for posting this download. I have listened to it and found it to be very thought provoking ( if thats the right phrase to use, but you know what I mean!) I have listened to the others on the forum as well and I find them all a really useful add on to this work. I feel that it helps to deepen your understanding the more you listen. The only thing that fazes me a bit is that if we are not our thoughts, sensations, emotions etc, then what are we? Are we all part of the bigger whole? And what is the bigger whole? So if you could just let me know what the meaning of life is I would be most grateful!

Thanks again for posting, love the blog to!

Simone

ACT Observer Exercise on an MP3 for home use

Someone posted a while back asking for ACT exercises that could be downloaded as MP3s from the Internet. That was the inspiration for me to record an exercise I'd read about but never experienced: the "Observer Exercise" from a 1999 ACT book for therapists. As originally designed, a therapist leads you through an eyes-closed session of remembering previous moments in your life - from last summer, as a teenager, etc. The memories themselves aren't crucial - it's what the exercise helps you realize about them and about who "you" might be. I found that even though it was me reading aloud to me, the effect was remarkable. I'd recommend it to anyone who is struggling with thoughts & emotions, or who is curious to see what there is to being human beyond the little voice in our heads that seems so powerful yet insists we are so powerless. I've done my best to make the MP3 reasonably

playable - feedback welcome. The words are from the original text with only minor tweaks. It's posted on my blog with a short explanation - here's the address:http://raburgess. com/wholesight/ 2008/01/13/ act-observer- exercise- on-an-mp3-for-home- use/Would love to hear if anyone else creates an exercise - sharing is fun.

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[Guest guest]

Hi Simone,

> The only thing that fazes me a bit is that if we are not

> our thoughts, sensations, emotions etc, then what are we?

> Are we all part of the bigger whole? And what is the bigger

> whole?

Well ... this is probably coals to Newscastle, but here goes:

Can thoughts walk? Eat? Smile? Dance? No ... but you can do all these

things, and more.

Are you only the thing that knows how to ask seemingly answerable

questions, and not the walker, the smiler, the dancer?

Your mind will say it is the one in charge ... the owner of the body

that walks, the face that smiles. This is like the tail of the

elephant insisting it owns the elephant.

None of this will mean anything until you bump into it on your own. I

will try & think of some other exercise for arranging such a bump.

What you are after is a kind of aha moment that you are not merely

whatever your mind is telling you that you are ... nor are you the

thing that needs to have an answer made of words.

It would all be very cosmic except it's not - it's as mundane as

scrambled eggs.