Confronting Your A nx iety 95
anxious. Perhaps you avoid thoughts, feelings, and behav-
iors associated with a past traumatic experience.- Think about what you do to avoid feeling anxious and
how you would like to confront your avoidance behavior,
including imagining yourself confronting the object or
situation that you fear with acceptance rather than reactiv-
ity or avoidance. Using the two examples above, you might
avoid managing monthly bills through procrastination
activities (surfing the Internet, watching T V, and so on), or
you might avoid remembering a car accident by refusing to
ride by a certain landmark that reminds you of it. If these
were things that you more than routinely avoided, you
might use this practice to imagine yourself, in clear detail,
confronting each of these activities with more adaptive
responses. Acceptance will help you alter your relationship
with whatever it is you fear. - Observe your feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations
while you imagine confronting your fear.
Do this once or twice a day for a week, and using a journal or
notepad or tracking worksheet available at the website for this book,
track how your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations differ each
time. Try to extend the time you spend with this practice by at least
a couple of minutes every day.
Exercise 3.2: Confront Your A nxiety with Mindfulness in
Real Life Using the tools we have presented in this chapter, plan
to practice mindfully confronting your anxiety. For example, if you
fear talking on the phone, plan to mindfully call a friend— that
is, be fully engaged with the conversation and the purpose of the
activity. Or, if you fear enclosed spaces, practice approaching a tight
space that you have recently avoided. You may also want to use the