ACT · Baseer Maroof, LCSW
Passengers on the Bus
You’re driving. The critics get on anyway.
A classic ACT metaphor. The wording here is original.
Your road
Where are you driving?
Add a passenger of your own
Driving
Rear-view mirror
Stop 1 · a passenger gets on
5 stops to go
What do you do?
Arrived
Still aboard, and quieter:
Why this works
In ACT this is called Passengers on the Bus. The passengers are thoughts, memories, urges and old voices. You can’t throw them off. Fighting them parks the bus, and obeying them steers it somewhere you didn’t choose.
The third option is to let them ride and keep steering by what matters to you. They usually don’t leave. They do get quieter when they stop running the route.
Next time one gets on, try naming it: “There’s that passenger again.” Then keep driving.