How to Use This Deck

It’s quite simple and helpful in almost

any situation! We have divided the
deck into three categories:
The exercises in this category
will focus on your full experience
OPEN and teach you to notice and lean
into difficult or painful thoughts,
feelings, memories, or physical
sensations.
These exercises will help you
incorporate mindfulness into
AWARE
your everyday life and increase
your contact with the present
moment.
Life is about doing; the
ENGAGED
exercises on these cards will
help you do more, no matter
what pain shows up.
 How to Use This Deck (continued)
In each category, we have question,
action, and information cards that
help you foster and grow your own
psychological flexibility by connecting
you with your full experience, and
expanding the way you think about and
interact with your experience.
• Therapists: Pick one card in a category
and challenge yourself to incorporate
it into session that day or week.
• Clients: Participate in ‘ACT Improv’ –
choose a card and spend five minutes
on what it says.
• Everyone: Commit to a daily or
weekly practice at home.
However you use these cards, it will
provide a richer and deeper connection
and understanding of yourself, your
world, and how you experience it.
Why not start right now?
 Acknowledgments
Thank you for purchasing this deck.
Our hope is that these practices will
expand and enrich your life.

We would like to acknowledge and

thank the therapists, researchers,
community activists, and compassionate
people who make up the ACT
community, the Association for
Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS)
that we call our intellectual home.
We would also like to thank PESI as
a whole, and specifically Karsyn and
Emily, for supporting and encouraging
our work.
 About the Authors

Timothy Gordon, MSW, RSW, and

Jessica Borushok, PhD, are experts
in the field of Acceptance and
Commitment Therapy (ACT) and
co-authors of the comprehensive
guide, The ACT Approach.

Copyright 2017 © Timothy Gordon

& Jessica Borushok
Published by PESI Publishing & Media
www.pesipublishing.com
 Your Patterns
Pay close attention to what
happens when difficult
thoughts and feelings arise -
what do you do in reaction?

Why do you keep doing

what you do?

What do you get from it?

OPEN
OPEN
 Press Pause on Your Life
Bring to mind a situation or
person that makes you feel a
strong emotion or urge.

Pay attention to
what happens in your
mind and body.

Practice leaning into

whatever shows up, good,
bad, or indifferent.

OPEN
OPEN
 Be Aware
Notice that there are always
thoughts, feelings,
sensations and memories
going on inside you.

Take a step back from

that and observe how
they’re impacting you.

OPEN
OPEN
 Pick-Up & Go
A tipping point is a moment
where it hurts more to avoid
and not do something,
than to do it.

What is your tipping point?

Pick one meaningful action

to do today that your
mind tells you to avoid.

OPEN
OPEN
 Spread Happiness
In the presence of pain, can
you move the corners of your
mouth upward in a smile?

Smile at someone you care

about today or someone who
greets you with one.

OPEN
OPEN
 Raise the Roof
Say aloud:

“I can’t raise my hands”

as you raise your hands

in the air.

Our minds do not

control our actions.

OPEN
OPEN
Unhooking From the Mind
Your mind is a thought
generating machine and
your thoughts can be hooks.

What happens when

you get hooked by a
difficult thought?

Acknowledge the thought

and notice what you do next.

OPEN
OPEN
 Predicting the Future
Imagine a future painful
situation you might find
yourself in.

What happens when

your thoughts, feelings,
sensations, and memories
hook you?

What do you do in reaction?

OPEN
OPEN
 Fork in the Road
Pause here for a moment and
be curious about a painful
situation where you did
something problematic.

How would you want

to handle that situation
differently if you weren’t
getting hooked by
your mind?

OPEN
OPEN
 Story Time
You didn’t choose
your history.

How do past hurts inform

who you are today?

How have they effected

the choices you made?

Notice the stories your

mind creates to explain
who you are.

OPEN
OPEN
 Conscious Decisions
Right now, take a breath
on purpose and choose
what you want your next
action to be about.

Set a reminder to do this

several times throughout
your day.

OPEN
OPEN
 Easier Said Than Done
What does forgiving
mean to you?

What painful thoughts,

judgments, feelings,
sensations or memories
would you have to let go of
to practice forgiveness?

OPEN
OPEN
 Focusing on Healing
The thoughts, feelings,
sensations, and memories
that you most want to rid
yourself of, the ones that
make you want to hide, are
the ones that need your
attention and compassion.

Focus on those for ten

breaths and notice how you
feel afterward.

OPEN
OPEN
 Criticism Isn’t Critical
Notice your tendencies to
push harder, self-criticize,
and be harsh.

More effort doesn’t always

equal better outcomes.

Take one difficult situation

you’re working through and
practice accepting yourself.

OPEN
OPEN
 Is This Helping?
Think of a difficult thought
or feeling and notice
what you do in reaction
that’s problematic.

Does it help in the

short-term?

Long-term, does it delete or

permanently remove that
thought or feeling?

OPEN
OPEN
 It’s All About Perspective
Think of a problem or difficult
situation in your life. Imagine
it is an opportunity to be
worked through.

How might you show up

to it differently?

If it were a mountain to
be climbed how would you
prepare to take advantage
of this opportunity?

OPEN
OPEN
 Not Broken? Don’t Fix It!
For the rest of your day,
focus on doing what works,
acting in a way that
increases your quality
of life, rather than seeking
out problems to be fixed.

OPEN
OPEN
 Name Your Story
You are the author of
your life’s story.

What would you choose

to name the story of
your life so far?

How is that different

from what your mind
would want to call it?

OPEN
OPEN
 Give Forgiveness
Bring to mind someone
you care about.

Imagine them making

a mistake or
perceived misstep.

How might you show them

you understand they’re
imperfect without criticizing
or attempting to get even?

What would that

mean to them?

OPEN
OPEN
 Balancing Act
Move around while balancing
a pillow on your head.

Imagine this pillow is your

most difficult experience.

Notice how hard it is to

engage in your life while
focusing on balance.

What else could

you do instead?

OPEN
OPEN
 Hold It Lightly
Place an ice cube in the
palm of your hand,
gripping it tightly.

Your most difficult

thoughts and sensations
are like this ice cube:

the harder you try to control

them, the messier it gets.

Hold them lightly.

OPEN
OPEN
 Judge Judy
Notice the judgments that
control your behavior.

What trajectory
do they set you on?

What do you normally

do in response to
your judgments?

AWARE
AWARE
 Turn Off Your Autopilot
When anxiety, sadness,
frustration, and anger show
up in your life, what do you
do with those experiences?

How do you react?

How can you turn off

your autopilot?

AWARE
AWARE
 Frenemies
Experiences hang together.

When a difficult memory or

painful sensation shows up,
pause and notice what
else comes with it.

What does your mind

tell you to do next?

AWARE
AWARE
 Be a Tourist
Take a walk through a
place where you’ve been
many times before and
notice it on purpose,
as if for the first time.

What do you see, hear,

smell, taste, feel that you
otherwise would have
taken for granted?

AWARE
AWARE
 You Are Not Your Thoughts
You have thoughts
and feelings.

You experience them

now, experienced them
yesterday, and will
experience them tomorrow.

Notice the separation

between you and what you
think and feel.

AWARE
AWARE
 Take Inventory
At any moment of your day,
come back to here-and-now
by asking yourself:

Where am I?

What do I see?

What am I doing?

What can I smell?

Who am I with?

What do I taste?

AWARE
AWARE
 Mind Sweeper
You are not your
thoughts, feelings,
sensations, or memories.

Pause and notice

your thoughts.

You are separate from

them and can catch them
happening right now.

AWARE
AWARE
 Aboard The S.S. You
Notice the world and your
experience as separate from
you, like your sensations and
body are a vessel and you
are peering out through the
windows of that vessel.

AWARE
AWARE
 In Your Body
Take a moment to pause
and scan your body from
the top of your head to
the tips of your toes.

Notice areas of tension

and relaxation.

Follow your breath

in and out.

AWARE
AWARE
 Sensory Feast
The next time you
eat, pretend each bite
is the only one.

Savor the experience.

AWARE
AWARE
 InstaYou
Imagine a picture frame with
constantly changing photos:
happy ones, sad ones,
bittersweet memories
from the past –
these are your thoughts.

You are the frame.

AWARE
AWARE
 You Are Not This Card
Imagine you can place
your most painful thought
or judgment about
yourself on this card.

Really picture it.

Just as you are not this card,

you are not that thought.

It is separate from you.

AWARE
AWARE
 Your Many Roles
Pause and reflect on
the roles you have
held in your life:
child, student, employee,
parent, friend, partner,
and more.

What is it like in this

moment to witness your
changing roles?

AWARE
AWARE
 Right Now, It’s Like This
When we stop noticing,
we can get stuck in painful
patterns of reacting, shutting
down, and worse.

Notice what is present:

thoughts, feelings, sights,
sounds; and say to yourself,
“right now, it’s like this”
describing your experience.

AWARE
AWARE
 Your Left Foot
Shift your awareness to your
left foot. Wiggle your toes.

Notice the sensations

right now. Is it warm or
cool, dry, itchy?

You moved your attention to

notice your foot, you can do
the same with your mind.

You have a foot,

but it is not you.

You have a mind,

and it too, is not you.

AWARE
AWARE
 Disengaging
Your Autopilot
Interrupt your mental
autopilot by paying
attention to what you’re
doing on purpose.

Turn off the radio. Hold the

steering wheel and feel its
texture; notice where
your foot makes contact
with the gas pedal.

Take note of
what you observe.

AWARE
AWARE
 Breathing on Purpose
Take three slow breaths on
purpose, inhaling for three
seconds, pausing, then
exhaling for three seconds.

Repeat.

Observe what occurs

to you, whether it’s
thoughts, judgments,
evaluations, or impulses.

Notice them.

AWARE
AWARE
 Live Broadcast
Listen to your mind
like a radio playing in
the background.

It broadcasts thoughts,
judgments, feelings,
sensations, and memories.

Notice what your

mind broadcasts.

You are separate from it

and can listen to it live.

AWARE
AWARE
 Acknowledge the Darkness
What is the hardest thing
to accept about yourself?

Pause here and just

allow yourself to see that
and be present to it.

AWARE
AWARE
 Purposeful Steps
Reaching a goal involves
taking one step in the
direction of what matters
and then another.

What direction are you

walking in?

What is your next step?

ENGAGED
ENGAGED
Values & Vulnerabilities
Pause and think of a
painful judgment you
have about yourself.

Why is this important

in your life?

This hurt shows up for a

reason—what’s on the
other side of this pain?

ENGAGED
ENGAGED
 Two Sides
of the Same Coin
Pain and values go together.

In order to not feel

sadness, loss, anger, or fear
you would also have to not
care about people and things
in your life that matter.

Who or what would you

have to walk away from to
never experience pain again?

Would it last?

ENGAGED
ENGAGED
 The Moral of Your Story
Your pain has wisdom.

What do your most

difficult thoughts, feelings,
sensations, and memories
that you struggle with
tell you about what’s
important in your life?

ENGAGED
ENGAGED
 Living is Doing
Pick one small action
you could do today that
takes you closer to the
life you want to live.

Put down this card

and do it.

ENGAGED
ENGAGED
 Finding Value
Bring to mind an important
memory from your history.

Imagine yourself there,

behind your eyes in
that moment.

What is important to you

about that memory?

ENGAGED
ENGAGED
 To Be Continued . . .
You are the author
of your life’s story.

Despite what’s been written

so far, what do you want
your story to be about?

ENGAGED
ENGAGED
 We Learn the Hard Way
Pain is inevitable in life.

What have you learned

from your struggles?

When pain shows up again

in your life, how do you
want to handle it?

ENGAGED
ENGAGED
 Living by Example
What do you want
people in your life to
remember about you?

What small action

can you do today
to show that to them?

ENGAGED
ENGAGED
 Role Models
Think of someone you
admire or respect.
What qualities do they
live that matter to you?

What is one quality that

you can practice today?

How?

ENGAGED
ENGAGED
 Be Curious About You
Values are the who
(family, pets, self, friends, etc.)
and the what (nature, religion,
creativity, independence, etc.)
that matter most to you.

How are your values different

from those of your family,
your friends, and other
people in your life?

ENGAGED
ENGAGED
Softening Into Possibility
Giving yourself warmth
and compassion creates
new possibilities for
meaning in your life.

Take one moment to

acknowledge your struggles
and be kind to yourself.

Notice what
happens next.

ENGAGED
ENGAGED
 Tell It Like It Is
Tell someone you care
about what you
appreciate about them.

Take a moment to describe

a time where they did or
said something that
mattered to you and
describe why it mattered.

ENGAGED
ENGAGED
 Receiving Wisdom
Bring to mind someone
you respect or someone
who has made a positive
impact on your life.

What wisdom, knowledge,

or advice might this person
share with you that could
benefit you right now?

ENGAGED
ENGAGED
Light Up the Darkness
Compassion is like a
soft light inside you.

Shine it on the parts

of you that you would
normally want to reject.

What would that

look like?

ENGAGED
ENGAGED