by Steve Hayes | Jun 29, 2021 | Emotion, Happiness, Relationships
A good man died a few days ago at the age of 87. He was one of the single most important persons in my life, and indeed he’s why I am a psychologist. I never met him. I corresponded with him only once – when I sent him a thank you note nearly 50 years after he’d...
by Steve Hayes | Apr 12, 2021 | Acceptance, Anxiety, Emotion, Happiness, Health
Imagine you are sitting in a car, and you are driving down a lonely highway. Suddenly, in the middle of nowhere, a warning light goes off. Your oil pressure is very low. If you just ignore it and continue your drive, you run the risk of doing serious damage to your...
by Steve Hayes | Feb 11, 2015 | Acceptance, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, ACT, Depression, Emotion, Evidence-Based Psychotherapy, Happiness, Human Suffering, Mindfulness, psychological flexibility, Values
Just because you’re not sick, doesn’t mean you’re healthy. We are used to that idea in physical health. Being cancer free is not the same as being fit—you have to take the steps needed to develop your physical strength, endurance, and flexibility. Not having the flu...
by Steve Hayes | Dec 18, 2014 | Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, ACT, Child Development, Evidence-Based Psychotherapy, Happiness, Human Suffering, Relationships, Self-as-Context
Is it important to love yourself? It seems that depends on how you do it. Few concepts in popular psychology have gotten more attention over the last few decades than self-esteem and its importance in life success and long-term mental health. Of course, much of this...
by Steve Hayes | Sep 8, 2014 | Depression, Evolutionary Psychology, Happiness, Relationships
Social Comparison and the Rise of Mental Health Problems in Young Americans Your smart phone could be making you miserable. Young Americans today are facing levels of stress, anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses that are higher than they were a generation...
by Steve Hayes | Feb 20, 2012 | Blog, Cognitive Defusion, Evolutionary Psychology, Happiness
Not too long ago, perhaps a couple hundred thousand years, an obscure primate species called “human” learned a new trick. We learned to relate one thing to another arbitrarily — we learned to have one thing stand for another. We acquired symbolic...