Biased thinking/Values/Social Anxiety

[Guest guest]

I've got a fairly good grasp of the main concepts of ACT now but seem

to be stuck on one issue.

After practising regular mindfulness I've found that below my surface

thinking is a thinking bias. My core biased thinking is mainly seeing

people as threats and noticing everything around me that could be a

threat (people). Also seeing only the negatives. And constantly

worrying about what I'm doing 'wrong', whether I'm doing

things 'right' etc. No matter how mindful I am of it, it remains. It

leaves me feeling constantly vulnerable in social situations. Which

would be fine, if being sociable and communicating with people wasn't

one of my values.

So my question is, HOW can I redress this imbalance without doing so

to avoid my negative thinking? I keep searching the ACT book and

mindfulness books for a clue but nowhere does it mention consciously

thinking in a DIFFERENT way or a new way about people or situations.

When I do it consciously and think about it I can manage to think and

feel more positively about people, and this improves my interactions

with them (ie. I'll consciously ask " What do I like about people?

What could be good about this? " ). However I get the impression that

consciously choosing to

think in a new way would be going against the ACT principles. It does

say at some point 'do something new when in contact with your

target', but it's not specific.

So, what do you guys think? How can I follow the ACT principles and

follow my value of communicating with people without the negative

bias against them? It's not so much that I want to avoid my negative

thinking, I guess I just want to follow my value of getting on with

people...which seems to require seeing the good in them rather than

my current biased thinking.