ACT On It

‘ACT On It’ is a completely free app, accessible for teenagers, but suitable for all ages. Our charity, with the same name (ACT On It) created this app. Why? To help young people improve their health and overall mental well-being. You can say ACT like the word 'act'. It stands for Acceptance Commitment Therapy or Acceptance Commitment Training. This app is an introduction to ACT. ACT is about you. It's suitable for almost anybody. We all need tips and tools to help us make the most out of life. It's like this: Open up to what is here and now, get clear about what's important to you, then act on it. This includes making space for the unhelpful thoughts and unwanted feelings that get in the way of us fully living our lives. Those thoughts and feelings that we all have from time to time. Here's some more info about thoughts, feelings and how this app ‘ACT On It’ can help: Some thoughts are helpful. But science shows us that most of our automatic thoughts are not that helpful. Our minds are like a broken radio, skipping channels. When we're absorbed in the voices on this radio, they can take us away from fully connecting to life. This happens to every single human being from time to time. Life programmes us to be safe in our comfort zones. It also programmes us to try and get rid of uncomfortable emotions. But this means we spend time caught up in our own struggles. When this happens, we tend to avoid things that matter to us deep down. Acceptance and commitment therapy is about you taking hold of your life compass and living by the life you really want to live. So, this is what this app is for. To take control of our lives more effectively by using some of the tools within this app. These tools can empower us to unhook from our struggles with unhelpful thoughts and uncomfortable feelings. Then we have more space and energy to focus on the things in life that actually matter. These things that we really care about. ACT is for anybody that wants to • Explore what really matters to them and act on it • Use tools to help make space for unhelpful thoughts and uncomfortable feelings • Use tools to focus and engage more in the moment of now. It doesn't matter who you are... ACT can be for almost everybody. Give some of these tools a try. Experiment. Choose which ones you prefer. MORE INFO ABOUT ACCPEPTANCE COMMITMENT THERAPY There's 40 years of science behind ACT. The primary organisation behind this movement is the Association for Contextual Behavioural Science (ACBS), dedicated to the alleviation of human suffering and the advancement of human well-being through contextual psychology. The therapy that is based on this science is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is a specialist branch of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). ACT has moved away from the traditional CBT emphasis on symptom reduction to alleviate suffering. Instead, ACT aims to change the relationship we have with these 'symptoms', our unwanted thoughts and feelings, so we can become free of their grip, and free from the unhelpful things we tend to do that bind us and prevent us from acting on what matters deep down. The science behind ACT suggests that when we judge our thoughts as 'negative', they become a problem. But from this perspective, these 'symptoms' don't have to be bad. It all depends on the context; thus the name 'contextual psychology'. If we can change our relationship to them, they often cease to be something that is a problem. They become part of the normal human experience, even if they are uncomfortable. As a consequence to this, symptom reduction happens as a by-product, without primarily focusing upon it, but with primarily focusing upon things that really matter in life instead. If you're interested, you can visit ACBS and find a range of resources. If necessary, you can also get help from health professionals that are dedicated to normalizing the human condition and advancing human well-being through ACT.