FEEL It to Heal It: An ACT Exercise You Can Do from Home

“But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” — Job 23:10

I’ve lived with anxiety most of my life, and didn't even know!

For years, I did what most people do — I tried to ignore it, numb it, or control it. I told myself to calm down. I tried to think positive thoughts. I pushed away the feelings. And the harder I tried not to feel anxious, the more anxious I became.

My heart would race faster. My breathing would tighten. My mind would grow louder, or go blank. I couldn't concentrate or make decisions.

And I remember thinking, What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I just stop this?

It took a long time for me to learn what I now teach my clients and talk about often in my videos: anxiety isn’t the enemy, the struggle with anxiety is.

Fear vs. Anxiety

Before we talk about exposure, it helps to understand the difference between fear and anxiety.

Fear is your body’s natural reaction to an immediate threat — like swerving to avoid a car or jumping back from a snake. It’s protective and instinctive.

Anxiety, though, is anticipatory. It’s what happens when your mind projects fear into the future: What if I panic? What if I fail? What if I’m not good enough? What if something bad happens?

Fear says, “I’m in danger.”Anxiety says, “I might be.”

Fear is about survival. Anxiety is about uncertainty.

When anxiety takes over, your world begins to shrink. You start avoiding not just situations, but sensations — your racing heart, your thoughts, your emotions, even your own memories.

That avoidance gives you a short burst of relief but a long-term cost: it convinces your brain that anxiety itself is dangerous.

Willingness Over Control

In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), we take a radically different approach.Instead of trying to control anxiety, we practice willingness — the courage to experience discomfort in the present moment while moving toward what matters most.

Willingness doesn’t mean liking anxiety. It means making room for it.It’s about saying, “I can feel this, and still choose to live.”

That’s where FEEL exposure comes in.

What FEEL Exposure Really Means

FEEL exposure comes from John P. Forsyth and Georg H. Eifert’s Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Anxiety Disorders, one of the foundational ACT texts for working with anxiety.

FEEL stands for: Feeling | Experiences | Enriches | Living.

This acronym captures what exposure in ACT is really about — contact with experience.It’s not about erasing fear, but learning to feel it fully, to experience it willingly, and to discover that doing so actually enriches your ability to live.

FEEL exposure is designed for people with anxiety disorders — panic disorder, social anxiety, OCD, generalized anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. It helps them come into direct, safe contact with what they fear most, teaching the brain that anxiety is not a fire to fight, but a wave to ride.

Here’s what that can look like when you imagine yourself in each situation:

• Panic Disorder: Feeling as if you’re suffocating, gasping for air, writhing on the floor — yet discovering that those sensations pass.

• Social Phobia: Imagining being jeered at, criticized, or humiliated by a crowd — yet staying open and grounded through the discomfort.

• PTSD: Noticing the flashbacks or memories that come alive — and practicing grounding yourself in the present, knowing you are safe now.

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Facing the thought, “What if I’m found out as a fraud or failure?” — yet choosing to stay engaged in your work or relationships anyway.

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Allowing intrusive thoughts — violent, obscene, or blasphemous — to arise without acting on compulsions, learning they are thoughts, not truths.

Each of these is an example of what ACT calls willing exposure — not forced or reckless, but guided contact with fear, grounded in presence.

It’s not about erasing symptoms. It’s about reclaiming life.

FEEL Exposure Activities

In my video “ACT Exercise for Anxiety,” I share several exercises that can help you safely begin this kind of exposure work. Each one brings you closer to the sensations you’ve been avoiding, teaching your mind and body that discomfort is survivable.

1. The Spinning Exercise

Stand and slowly spin in place for a few seconds, then stop. Notice the dizziness, the unease, the instinct to make it stop.Instead of rushing to fix it, breathe. This helps your body learn that sensations of panic — lightheadedness, racing heart, loss of balance — can be experienced safely.

2. Straw Breathing

Breathe normally, then exhale through a straw slowly. This recreates the breathlessness common in panic or anxiety attacks. Your job isn’t to calm down — it’s to notice what arises and to stay present with it. Each breath teaches your body, “I can feel tightness without danger.”

3. Mirror Work

Look into a mirror for a full minute. Notice what thoughts come — judgment, embarrassment, criticism. This practice brings you face-to-face with your own internal dialogue, helping you meet yourself with compassion rather than avoidance.

4. Cold or Emotional Exposure

Hold something cold in your hand or listen to a song that stirs emotion. The goal is to observe your sensations and emotions without fleeing. You’re learning that you can feel deeply without losing control.

Each of these exercises is about presence — not performance. When you stop trying to eliminate discomfort and instead make room for it, your anxiety loses its power to dictate your life.

For full demonstrations, you can watch the full video here.

Faith and Refinement

Job’s words remind me of what this process truly means:

“But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.”

Job’s suffering didn’t make him faithless — it refined him. And in many ways, exposure therapy mirrors that same truth. We grow not by avoiding pain but by learning to face it with honesty, courage, and faith.

God doesn’t ask us to control what we feel; He invites us to trust Him within it. That’s the deeper lesson of willingness — not to erase fear, but to walk faithfully through it.

A Reflection for You

Fear and anxiety don’t mean you’re broken.They mean you’re alive, sensitive, and human.

Control may feel safe, but it keeps you stuck. Acceptance feels risky, but it opens the door to freedom.

FEEL exposure is not about “getting rid” of anxiety — it’s about getting better at feeling. Each time you open to your experience instead of avoiding it, you take one small step toward a life enriched by courage, faith, and purpose.

You don’t need to conquer anxiety. You just need to create enough space to feel it — trusting, like Job, that the refining will lead to something good.

🎥 Watch the full video for demonstrations: ACT Exercise for Anxiety

Download: FEEL Workability Worksheet