About real self-talk, ...

Hello, everyone,

Much has been written and said about positive self-talk_for example, repeating to ourselves "I am wonderful" when we feel down, "I am strong" when going through a difficult time, or "I am getting better every day in every way" each morning in front of the mirror. The evidence that this sort of pep talk works is weak, and there are psychologists who suggest that it can actually hurt more than it can help. Little, unfortunately, has been written about real self-talk, acknowledging honestly what we are feeling at a given point. When feeling down, saying "I am really sad" or "I feel so torn"-to ourselves or to someone we trust-is much more helpful than declaring "I am tough" or "I am happy.
* source; https://publicism.info/psychology/perfect/18.html

About the expression - acknowledging in above paragraph, I think there are three possible analyses for its function as follows;

1. the "acknowledging" is the abbreviated form of “which acknowledges” as “reduced relative clause”, which modifies the preceding noun – ‘real self-talk’.
2. “acknowledging honestly what we are feeling at a given point” is an adverbial(=participle) clause, which modifies the preceding clause.
3. “acknowledging honestly what we are feeling at a given point” is an apposition clause to the preceding noun – ‘real self-talk’.

While I‘m inclined to the first one, I would like to invite your various opinions.

RGDS,