Journey 4 · Acceptance
Accepting Nerves, Not Hiding Them: Heart Rate Rose Less
In one lab study, people who accepted their nerves around a speech had a smaller heart-rate rise than people told to hide them, but didn’t report feeling less anxious.
In a lab study, Hofmann and colleagues (2009) randomly assigned university students to handle their anxiety around an impromptu speech in one of three ways: accept it, hide it, or reappraise the situation. Heart rate rose in every group, but less for accepting than for hiding. Still, the accepting group didn’t report less anxiety than the hiding group. Only the reappraising group did, and it matched accepting on heart rate.
So accepting didn’t make the nerves go away. Compared with hiding them, what differed was the body’s side of the struggle. Keep the scope in mind: this is one lab study of university students around a single speech, the heart-rate difference was small, nothing was measured over time, and acceptance doesn’t always calm you in the moment.
In Journey 4, Acceptance, guided by Noa, this is why the practice is physical: a slow breath, and clenched fists opening on the exhale. You don’t need to feel calm before you act. The practice aims to stop the fight with the nerves, so your attention is free for what’s in front of you. What if the nerves were allowed to come along?
The research
Growing evidence Real research that's still building — results are promising and still being tested.
- Hofmann, S. G., Heering, S., Sawyer, A. T., & Asnaani, A. (2009). How to handle anxiety: The effects of reappraisal, acceptance, and suppression strategies on anxious arousal. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47(5), 389–394.
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