Turning Toward Difficult Emotions Our culture floods us with the message that happiness and success depend on never experiencing suffering or painful emotions Of course we all feel negative emotions at times and when we do left feeling defeated Feeling that we must have made a terrible mistake somewhere along the way else would we be feeling so we spin our wheels doing whatever we believe necessary to avoid push away or somehow the upset We all experience negative emotions including anxiety No one is immune Even people without anxiety disorders go through anxious just part of life Bringing acceptance to your emotional world means giving up the fight against suffering and pain so you may be free in spite of it And too it means recognizing and believing that experiencing negative emotions is normal Accepting situations and experiences mean you want them or that resigning yourself to a lifetime of emotional pain Acceptance mean feeling the victim of your pain and that your pain controls you Acceptance mean you necessarily like what experiencing Acceptance is the is what it is The metaphor of the Chinese finger trap used in acceptance and commitment therapy clearly shows how struggling against the