Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life: The New Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Also known as Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life, Get Out of Your Mind & Into Your Life
Steven Hayes's self-help workbook of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) skills
At a glance
What it argues
Stop fighting your pain, Feel it without being run by it
See all 2Key ideas
Face fears instead of avoiding them, Defusion, Willingness …
See all 5Examples from the book
Say it fast
Read next
A Liberated Mind, The Happiness Trap, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: The Process and Practice of Mindful Change
See all 3Connections
Steven C. Hayes, Spencer Smith and 4 others
See all 6
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- A workbook that teaches the core skills of ACT to readers working on their own.
- It argues that fighting or avoiding painful thoughts and feelings keeps people stuck.
- Instead you practise accepting experience, defusing from thoughts, staying present and acting on what matters to you.
- Randomized trials have tested it as an aid to therapy and on its own.
- A 20th anniversary edition with a new preface came out in 2025.
Why it matters
- For anyone struggling with anxiety, low mood, trauma, stress or anger who wants to try ACT themselves, and for new ACT therapists who want to know the exercises from the inside.
Key facts
- Authors
- Steven C. Hayes with Spencer Smith1
- Published
- 2005; 20th anniversary edition September 20252
- Publisher
- New Harbinger Publications1
- Pages
- 232 (20th anniversary edition)1
- ISBN
- 978-1-57224-425-2 (2005)2
- Audience
- People struggling with painful thoughts and emotions, anxiety, depression, trauma, job stress or anger1
- Evidence
- Randomized trials show it works as an aid to ACT or on its own, per Hayes3
- Recognition
- Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Self-Help Seal of Merit1
What it argues
Key ideas
-
Face fears instead of avoiding them1
One of five skill areas the publisher lists for the workbook.
-
Defusion1
Learning to step back from negative thoughts and emotions rather than obey them.
-
Willingness1
Fostering willingness to accept all of life's experiences, wanted or not.
-
Mindful, intentional moments1
Practising being present and acting on purpose in each moment.
-
Values1
Focusing on what really matters to you and committing to act on it.
Examples from the book
-
Say it fast1
Psychologist Diana Hill singles out one practice: "say I'm a loser fast a hundred times, what happens?"
Read next
-
Hayes's later book for general readers: the science and his own story behind the same skills.
-
Russ Harris's popular ACT self-help book, a gentler route into the same ideas.
-
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: The Process and Practice of Mindful Change
The clinical textbook, once you want the theory and the therapist's side.
Connections
Written by
- Steven C. HayesPerson
- Spencer Smith
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
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