ACT for musicians

Every musician has concerns about a performance. You want to peak at the moment when this is important for you. And actually it is quite logical that anxious or negative thoughts and feelings arise. And as much as we would like to get rid of them, research has shown that we have much less control over thoughts and feelings than we would like.

Mindfulness and ACT techniques and exercises allow you to experience that fears and negative thoughts do not have to be an obstacle to playing music freely or to delevering a good performance.
Both mindfulness and ACT offer an effective way to clear the path for optimal performance. It frees you from ingrained thoughts patterns and habit patterns that can hinder you during practising or performing music. It offers the posibility of approaching thoughts and feelings differently and experiencing them differently. And this leads to stressreduction and more positivity.

It is not a quick fix solution, you do have to do some effort. But as a musician you know better than anyone else: exercise pays off! The same applies to mindfulness and ACT: you can learn it through a series of simple exercises that train your ability to focus. The exercises only take a few minutes a day and you can easily apply them in your daily life and music making. 

What is ACT?

ACT stands for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
It is a relatively new form of behavioural therapy in which you can reduce the impact of troublesome thoughts and feelings (Acceptance), so that you can simultaneously invest in what is really important to you (Commitment).

According to ACT, having negative or fearful thoughts is part of being human. It is not someting that needs to be ‘cured’. And that startingpoint paves the way for a different relationship with difficult feelings and thoughts. In this respect mindfulness and ACT are somewhat similar. Mindfulness is therefore an important component of ACT.

Psychological Flexibility

However, ACT goes one step further than mindfulness by looking at values. It offers a concrete roadmap to what is important to you. It helps you arrange your life in a way that you can do the things that enrich and improve your life. It increases your so-called psychological flexibility.

Through ACT you develop an accepting and open attitude towards uncomfortable feelings. You also learn to take difficult thoughts and worries less seriously. You create a new, friendly relationship with yourself so that self-criticism is no longer an obstacle to living life to the full.