How Love Turns Pain Into Purpose

What can we do to prosper when facing pain and suffering in our lives?

Watch this video in which psychologist Steven C. Hayes, PhD, tries to answer this question. He describes psychological flexibility in relation to his own harrowing panic disorder history, including when he hit rock bottom with his panic attacks. He notes the moment in his life when he made the life-changing choice: “I will not run from me.” Dr. Hayes shows how making that choice allows individuals to connect with their own deep sense of meaning, arguing that taking a loving stance can turn pain into purpose.

Dr. Hayes is one of the researchers who first identified the process of learning psychological flexibility and then put it into action in the form of the mindfulness method known as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).

Steven C. Hayes, PhD, is Nevada Foundation Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada. An author of 38 books and more than 540 scientific articles, his research has illustrated how language and thought leads to human suffering. He has developed acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), a powerful therapy method. He is the author of Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life, a bestselling self-help book in the United States.