Posts Tagged ‘dialectical behavior therapy’
10 Practical Examples of Opposite Action – Part One
“The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy.” – Jim Rohn When you find yourself experiencing an emotion that is somehow getting in the way of harmonious relationships with others, pursuit of your goals, or living in accordance with your true values, opposite action can be an incredibly…
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Apply Opposite Action to Painful Emotions
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” – Kahlil Gibran Emotions can often be experienced so suddenly or deeply that little time or energy is given to question the facts or happenings that prompted the emotional experience. When emotions feel visceral and real in this way, we may…
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Increase Mindfulness of Pleasant Experiences
“For many years, at great cost, I traveled through many countries, saw the high mountains, the oceans. The only things I did not see were the sparkling dewdrops in the grass just outside my door.” – Rabindranath Tagore Mindfulness allows us to open to the constantly unfolding present moment. When we are aware of the…
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Resolve 10 Dialectical Tensions for a Balanced Lifestyle
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.” – Viktor Frankl Things in life are rarely “always” one way or the another. When you live according to absolutes or extremes, there is a tendency to become easily overwhelmed, overly stressed,…
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How to Practice “Radical Acceptance”
“The curious paradox is when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” – Carl Rogers In Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), the word “dialectic” refers to balancing and comparing two things that seem to be quite different – even contradictory. In DBT, this balance is between change and acceptance. For many people,…
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How to Apply Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills
“Let us never negotiate out of fear. But, let us never fear to negotiate.” – John F. Kennedy In our relationships with others, we inevitably need things from them at times just as they need things from us at other times. The exchanges that we have with others about how to get our own needs…
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What is “Wise Mind?”
“There is a wisdom of the head, and… a wisdom of the heart.” – Charles Dickens There is a natural human tendency to operate from a place of pure reason and pure emotion. When we are viewing the world through either lens, we miss out on the big picture. It can feel cold and lifeless…
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12 Steps to Becoming Less Fearful of Emotions
“Feelings are much like waves, we can’t stop them from coming but we can choose which one to surf.” – Jonatan Mårtensson When emotions seem overwhelming or painful, it is a natural response to want to avoid these emotions as much as possible. After all, who would “want” to feel angry, sad, or anxious? The paradox…
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How to Give Yourself the Validation You Crave
“Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul.” – Henry Van Dyke Many people who grow up in an invalidating environment gradually internalize invalidating messages about the self. This may happen with a child who was never taught to trust his own competency or ability to take care of himself. This child…
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DBT’s “What” Skills of Mindfulness
“Things are not what they appear to be; nor are they otherwise.” – Surangama Sutra Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), created by Dr. Marsha Linehan, incorporates the practice of mindfulness into almost all aspects of treatment. While mindfulness is technically its own component or module of treatment, aspects of mindfulness are present throughout the other treatment…
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