Let’s be real. The whole reason we’re doing any of this mindfulness stuff, pausing, noticing our breath, tuning into the present moment, isn’t just to be calm and zen while life hurls curveballs at us. It’s to be effective. That’s right: to align our actions with our values and goals, to respond with wisdom instead of reactivity, and to live a life that actually feels like ours.
The Beginner’s Guide to DBT Mindfulness Skills Part 6: One-Mindfully
In a world where multitasking is treated like a superpower, focusing on just one thing at a time can feel... weird. Unproductive. Even a little rebellious. You might ask, “Wait, if I’m at a dinner party, am I supposed to only eat and not talk? Or cancel game night because it requires both laughing and snack-holding?”
The Beginner’s Guide to DBT Mindfulness Skills Part 5: Nonjudgmentally
Now onto the “how” of mindfulness. As I shared earlier in this series, DBT Mindfulness has two main components: What you do (Observe, Describe, Participate), and How you do it (Nonjudgmentally, One-Mindfully, Effectively). We’ve made it through the What skills, now it’s time to dive into the How skills, starting with the real heavy-hitter: being nonjudgmental.
The Beginner’s Guide to DBT Mindfulness Skills Part 4: Participate
Okay, now onto my all-time favorite mindfulness skill in DBT: participation, aka doing the damn thing! This is the third "What" skill in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) mindfulness, and it’s where the magic really happens.
The Beginner’s Guide to DBT Mindfulness Skills Part 3: Describe
Welcome back to part 3 of our 7-part mindfulness series inspired by Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)! In this article, we’re diving into the second “What” skill: Describing. It comes right after Observation and spoiler alert, it’s basically your brain’s favorite party trick: putting words to what you notice. The catch? We’re learning how to do it mindfully.
The Beginner’s Guide to DBT Mindfulness Skills Part 2: Observe
The Beginner’s Guide to DBT Mindfulness Skills Part 1: What and How
Why We Have Emotions
On Fear During the Coronavirus
Oh man, fear can be a beast! It can get right on in there, take over, and control everything. If we let it.
Fear is our most primal emotion. Absolutely necessary for survival. Yet, we live in a time when there’s actually the least amount of threat to our survival in history. Still we experience the highest levels of fear and stress.
Mindful Monday: Mindfulness of Emotions
I’ve been feeling some things the last day or so. By things, I mean emotions. More uncomfortable emotions than I’d care to feel. There’s some good ol’ sadness, anger, and resentment mixed in with a bit of fear and regret. I’d rather not feel this way so there’s been some resistance to feeling them. Which is never helpful. But alas I’m as human as the next person, no matter how much I try to fight it.
Mindful Monday: Reality Bites and How to be Mindful of Our Thoughts
This morning I woke up from a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad dream. I won’t get into the details because it’s way too long and complicated, and the details are becoming more fuzzy as the day goes on, as often happens with dreams. But it was rough. And I dream deeply. There’s nothing lucid for me. I’m wholly in another reality, another dimension, entirely believing it to be the truth, no matter how strange it is. I often wake from these dreams incredibly relieved that it’s only a dream. Although, sometimes it takes me hours to connect back to waking reality and regroup from the emotions I experienced during it.