#2: Introduction to Mindfulness and the Wise Mind
Would you like to know more about DBT and where it all started? In today’s episode, Marielle and Ed will be looking into the background and development of DBT. They will discuss dialectics and the concept of Wise Mind and give an introduction to mindfulness. Tune in to find out more.
Dialectics is about balancing two things that could be seen as opposite, yet also as true. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was created towards the end of the 1980s, by Marsha Linehan, who started out doing Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) with suicidal and self-harming clients. She later added the dialectical component to more effectively treat people experiencing intense emotional suffering.
Show Highlights:
- Why Ed finds dialectics to be helpful for intense suffering.
- Ed defines the term ‘dialectics’.
- Always balancing acceptance and change with dialectics.
- With dialectics, two opposing things can be true at the same time.
- Moving away from ‘black-and-white’ thinking.
- DBT has been effective in treating people with different kinds of emotional dysregulation.
- Wise mind is an ideal state, a work in progress, and an internal sense of doing the right thing, even if it’s hard.
- Wise mind is the combination of our Emotion Mind and our Reasonable mind.
- What Emotion Mind looks like.
- What Reasonable Mind looks like.
- Wise Mind can lead us to that place of intuition or inspiration.
- There are many ways to practice mindfulness.
- Mindfulness helps us to access Wise Mind.
- Ed gives a mindfulness breathing exercise to help you to access Wise Mind.
- Mindfulness is the foundational skill of DBT.
- The mindfulness that is practiced in DBT isn’t meditation.
- What is mindfulness?
- Depression lives in the past.
- Much of our distress comes from focusing on the past or the future and not on the present moment.
- Mindfulness allows for choice.
- Mindfulness is both external and internal.
- Dealing with some of the problems with practicing mindfulness.
Resource:
Book by Marsha Linehan – DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets
Links:
You can find us online at http://bayareadbtcc.com/
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#2: Introduction to Mindfulness and the Wise Mind Transcript
Marielle Berg
Hello and welcome to The Skillful Podcast, where we explore DBT and RO-DBT skills to help you reduce emotional suffering, improve your relationships, and become more present in your life.I’m your host, Marielle Berg, a psychotherapist at the Bay Area DBT and Couples Counseling Center Thanks for joining us for episode two of The Skillful Podcast. Today we delve into the concept of wise mind and mindfulness. Welcome back, Ed.
Ed Fowler
Thank you.
Marielle Berg
Today we’re going to be covering a little bit on the background of DBT. As well as the concept of wise mind and mindfulness.
Ed Fowler
Great.
Marielle Berg
So let’s start with talking a little bit about DBT. In general, for people who are unfamiliar with it. So Marsha Linehan created DBT, she works out of the University of Washington in Seattle. And she says that she was originally doing CBT, with self harming and suicidal clients. And she found that the push for change, which is really inherent in CBT–which is cognitive behavioral therapy for folks who are unfamiliar with it–was invalidating to the suffering that these clients were feeling. So she began to think about a treatment that would be more effective for folks who are having that sort of level of emotional suffering. And she came up with DBT, which brings in the behavioral piece of CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy, but adds another component, which is the dialectical piece, that’s what the D stands for. And so the dialectics means where are always balancing what two things?
Ed Fowler
Oh, is this a quiz?
Marielle Berg
I know, this is your thing
Ed Fowler
This is my thing, I was starting to get really excited to talk about the dialectics because I found it to be so helpful, because in dialectical thinking, we are holding two things that could be seen as opposite as equally true at the same time. And especially when we’re talking about intense suffering, I find dialectics to be so helpful, because we’re holding the idea that we can be suffering enormously, and we want to work towards change, not saying we’ve got to push to change, and don’t worry about the suffering, and not saying, oh, I’m suffering so much I couldn’t possibly change, but that we’re holding both. And I do think it makes a huge difference to most of us when we are suffering, to be able to say yes, I’m really suffering. And I want to do something to get out of this.
Marielle Berg
Yeah, exactly. So the dialectic pieces were always balancing acceptance and change, which you just talked about, so clearly. And I also think about in terms of dialectics that two opposing ideas can be true at the same time, like acceptance and change, equally important, but you can feel very strong positive feelings toward someone. And at the same time, you can feel very strong negative feelings. Both can be true at the same time.
Ed Fowler
So yeah, so I find that like really helpful thinking about, for instance, if I really like and respect someone, and I’m also really frustrated with them, it can be so confusing, of like, well do I, because I really like and respect them, I just have to let go of the frustration or because I’m frustrated, does that mean I can’t respect them, and they’re not respectable, and they’re bad people. And what I really appreciate, dialectical thinking helps me get out of that trap, and be able to say, I really like and respect them. And I’m really, really frustrated. And that gives me so many more options of what to do.
Marielle Berg
Right, and helps move away from that black and white thinking that kind of either or, which can create problems.
Ed Fowler
Yeah.
Marielle Berg
So DBT was originally developed for folks who are struggling with borderline personality disorder, and emotional dysregulation, which we talked about in episode one in some detail. But since then, it’s been proven to be highly effective for folks who struggle with a range of difficulties that all have emotional dysregulation at their core. And so this sort of spans, you know, PTSD, not the DBT treatment, treats the trauma, per se, but it can help someone regulate their emotions enough so they can engage more fully in trauma treatments.
Ed Fowler
Exactly, yeah, to know, you know, the symptoms of the trauma first, and then you can go back and dig in a little bit more to heal some of that trauma from the past. But I think that DBT can be so helpful, with like really practical skills and tools, whether having really strong anxiety, or maybe the other end of the spectrum, really serious depression, inability to get motivated and do things. All of that is emotional dysregulation in extremes that are not working for us so DBT just gives a really practical way out.
Marielle Berg
Yes. And also folks who struggle with bipolar disorder also can benefit because they’re also at different extremes at different times. So a range of different concerns, any kind of addictive and compulsive behaviors, because often, those behaviors are ways to cope with emotions. So the skills in DBT are super helpful with that.
Ed Fowler
Definitely.
Marielle Berg
So that’s just a little bit of a background of where DBT came from. So let’s dive into one of the foundational concepts in DBT, which is wise mind. And this is something we start our skills group with, we actually start with mindfulness, which we’ll also talk about today. But when we’re in wise mind, there’s a sense that what we’re doing is right, even if it’s hard, it’s an internal sense of this is the right decision for me, this is the right course of action. And ideally, we’re making all if you know, or most of our decisions from wise mind.
Ed Fowler
I think using a dialectical approach, we are trying to make most of our decisions from wise mind, and often we are not, no matter how long we have been practicing DBT. And I think Marsha Linehan is such a great example of this of owning up to her own lack of a wise mind at times, and being able to say, yeah, I started this great thing, and I’m not always in wise mind. And I think it’s so freeing to be like, okay, we want to be in wise mind, and sometimes we’re not.
Marielle Berg
Yeah. And so then not to judge ourselves or feel ashamed that this is a state that is a work in progress.
Ed Fowler
Exactly.
Marielle Berg
And we’re really trying to access that. So and to backup, I think a good way to begin to think about wise mind is to think about these two other states of mind that we think about in DBT, which you mentioned a moment ago, emotion mind and reasonable mind. Do you want to talk about either of those?
Ed Fowler
Yeah, I mean, for me, when I think about wise mind, which the idea of like finding a place of wisdom within ourselves, that kind of intuition can seem too big and too overwhelming. And like, I don’t know how I’m supposed to access that. For me, it helps a lot to think about wise mind, and this is how Marsha Linehan framed it, as the combination of our emotion, mind, and our reasonable mind. That all of us have both an emotion mind that’s really ruled by emotion, those strong feelings that are giving us information about what’s going on, that we’re not really thinking about. It’s not intellectual, it’s just this felt sense of what’s going on. And then our reasonable mind, which is more on that rational side, the facts of the situation, being able to sort through pros and cons, that kind of thing. And that wise mind is being able to combine and balance both. That it usually doesn’t work to just be ruled by our emotions without bringing reason in. And it also does not work to be ruled by reason and ignoring the felt sense of things. And so that when we are trying to access this place of wisdom within ourselves, what we’re looking for is a balance. A balance between emotion and reason.
Marielle Berg
Okay, and let’s delve in a little bit more into what emotion mind looks like. And help maybe give some examples and explain that so people can really understand.
Ed Fowler
Yeah so, one of the things we talked about in DBT is that like, emotion, mind, if it had a temperature, it would be hot. So I think we all experienced this when emotions are really strong, like it’s so much intense feeling. And so it’s just like, a place of feeling really strong, powerful sadness, or anger, or jealousy, or whatever it might be. It is, I don’t know, what else would you want to say, to describe emotion in mind?
Marielle Berg
In emotion mind, facts can kind of go out the window.
Ed Fowler
Yeah.
Marielle Berg
Or, we get sort of myopic in our thinking, we selectively fixate on certain facts and ignore others,
Ed Fowler
Right.
Marielle Berg
So facts become very subjective.
Ed Fowler
Yes, and the facts we choose are usually guided by the emotion that we’re feeling. So if I am angry, I am looking for the facts that justify my anger. And those facts may not be accurate, but my anger is seeking them out and finding them.
Marielle Berg
So for example, to use this idea of or to be thinking more about how anger will make us select or choose certain facts and ignore others. So if you’re waiting to hear like a text or phone call from a significant other and they are quite late and reaching out to you, your emotion mind, you might be angry in emotion mind and then you can start remembering all the other times that they have let you down before.
Ed Fowler
Right
Marielle Berg
And forget about other things they’ve done that show their love and care.
Ed Fowler
Right.
Marielle Berg
And that further fuels emotion mind.
Ed Fowler
Right. And so the thinking is colored by the emotion. And so it just revs up whatever that emotion is.
Marielle Berg
Yes, versus reasonable mind. So in reasonable mind, it’s the converse of emotion mind. So if it had a temperature, it would be cool. It’s sort of this calm, rational place where logic is all that you sort of, you know, logic and rationales and reason is all that you consider. So emotions are not on the table.
Ed Fowler
And I think that people who get involved in DBT, tend to have more experience with being strongly in emotion mind than strongly in reasonable mind. And I think that we still can have that experience where I’m just looking at the facts of the situation, I’m ignoring my emotions about it. I’m saying, you know, like this, for instance, if you have to make a decision about something, and doing pros and cons, and only looking at that, and not looking at, well, how do I feel like, am I energized by this? Am I afraid of this? Am I, you know, like, really frustrated with this whole process? It’s just like, No, you know, here’s the pros. Here’s the cons. I’m just going to make my decision based on that. And so we’re ignoring what emotion might actually teach us.
Marielle Berg
So what you’re saying is we’re not trying to get rid of emotion mind and only being reasonable mind because we need emotion. Yes. And we need reason. So that brings us to our wise mind, which brings together emotion, mind and reasonable mind to lead us again to that place of intuition or knowing. And so one of the best ways to talk about wise mind, I think, is to practice.
Ed Fowler
Yes.
Marielle Berg
So if you’re listening to this, while you’re driving, obviously, do not close your eyes and do these exercises,
Ed Fowler
Please.
Marielle Berg
Please. But if you can find a moment to sit down and have a quiet space, you can practice along with us to try to access your wise mind.
Ed Fowler
And we’ll talk a little bit more about many different ways. And it’s one thing I appreciate about DBT, the many ways to practice mindfulness being in the present moment. And they can be more reflective, they can also be very active, because we want lots of options. When we’re trying to access our wise mind, that tends to be a little bit more on the reflective side, because we’re looking for that place of balance. And so it does help I think when we’re trying to access wise mind, to be able to take a pause, to sit quietly, to listen within ourselves, and so wise mind practice tends to be more on the reflective end of things. If that’s hard for you, which for a lot of people, it’s like, oh, no, I can’t I’m not a meditator. I’m not going to be sitting there being quiet. If that’s hard for you, I think it’s worth it to kind of try knowing in DBT, there’s always so many more options, like this is not it.
Marielle Berg
Would you like to lead us in our first wise mind exercise?
Ed Fowler
Sure I think that when we talked about what are some of the wise mind exercises that are helpful, one of the primary ones that we focus on is something very simple, which is paying attention to our breath, we are breathing in and breathing out all the time, usually not aware of it, not noticing it. And taking a moment to just focus on our breathing, can shift our awareness away from the, you know, stresses of daily life, away from our worries, away from any emotions that are really strong, and into just being present with ourselves in our body and what’s happening right now. So take a moment and practice attending to our breath. And I will walk us through that so that it’s not like okay, attend to your breath, good luck. But in DBT, always, it’s like, let’s walk through this so that you get a sense of it. So if you are sitting down in a quiet place, it’s usually good to sit comfortably, often helps to put both feet on the ground so that you have a sense that you’re connecting with the ground beneath you. And if it helps, and often it does, you can close your eyes. If closing your eyes doesn’t feel comfortable, we encourage people just to look down so that you’re not looking all around. You’re not trying to search what’s out there, but just look down, just gently looking at the ground beneath you, or keep your eyes closed. And take a moment just to notice breathing in and breathing out. No need to breathe any particular way. Just notice the sensation of breathing in and breathing out. The sensation of the air coming in through your nose or your mouth and leaving back out the sensation of your stomach and your chest expanding and contracting. And as you are breathing in and out, try to focus your attention on when you breathe out completely. Just that pause in between breaths. And that would be a place where we would be looking to access a place of wisdom and balance so, breathe in, breathe out, notice the pauses in between. Usually, when we do this kind of reflection, our minds can wander. That’s good. And if you notice your mind wandering, to just come back to paying attention to your breathing. And if you are having a hard time paying attention, it can help to just say breathing in and breathing out as you breathe in and out, to give yourself a little bit more focus. And as you do that, see if you can just have a felt sense of your center. Now, maybe just take one more breath in and out. And bring your attention back to where you are now. Open your eyes. Look around. And notice what you notice.
Marielle Berg
Great thank you, Ed. So watch as you’re coming back to the room, moving away from the wise mind exercise, seeing if you are feeling centered or grounded, noticing if there are any judgments about how the practice went and seeing if you can let them go. And so this is just one of many ways to access wise mind. And in DBT, if you start DBT treatment, specially if you are doing a DBT skills group, you’ll experiment with lots of different ways to begin to locate your wise mind, this is just a little taste.
Ed Fowler
And again, as I said earlier, there’s more reflective ones like this, and there’s more active ones and intellectual ones. So there’s lots of possibilities. And what we find helpful is to try a lot out to see which ones do you connect with, because everyone connects with different ways to access their wise mind.
Marielle Berg
Okay, and now we’re going to move on to discuss mindfulness, another foundational skill in DBT, or the foundational skill in DBT. It’s the one skill that we repeat, we come back to and teach and experiment with between all the other modules. So mindfulness underlies all the other skills in DBT. And mindfulness is very popular right now in our world. So you have likely heard of it. And if you haven’t, you’ll learn about it today. And the kind of mindfulness that we are teaching in DBT is not necessarily meditation. So meditation is great, and a wonderful way to work that mindful muscle. But don’t feel like you need to be a meditator. To practice mindfulness in DBT. What we really want to help people do is learn how to be mindful in everyday life. And you can be mindful pretty much when you’re doing anything. So let’s define mindfulness. So what is mindfulness? Mindfulness is paying attention on purpose to what’s happening right now, without judgment. So when you practice mindfulness, you’re focusing your attention on your present experience, noticing whatever is happening in each moment. So this is very different than what our minds often do, which is our minds are very often not in the moment we’re in. And that’s the only moment we actually have. So for some people, their minds tend to go more towards the future. And so if you’re thinking about the future, that can be a place where there’s fear or anxiety often as we’re trying to anticipate, and plan for what will happen, which isn’t to say that anticipating and planning is not a positive thing. And we do need to do that, at time, certainly to live the life who wants to live. But if our minds are regularly, not in the present moment, and in the future, oftentimes anxiety comes with that. For other people–and some people can maybe switch back and forth–for other people, their minds might be more lost in the past. And that’s a place where depression lives, there can be rumination about past regrets, things that didn’t go well, wishing you could have done things differently. And so neither of those places, the past or the future, are actually what’s happening in the moment.
Ed Fowler
And I think that’s such a helpful way to remember that so much of our distress is either worrying about the past or the future, and not noticing the present, not noticing what’s happening right now. Not noticing our options right now. Because the past is over and which sounds so trite. And the reality is the past is over and the future is not here yet. We have no idea what will exactly happen. And so if we just focus on the present, we can take what has happened in the past and plan for the future. But we have to be able to practice that focus, which I think can be really, really hard, especially in our modern world where we just have so much access to information from all over the place, and can get places and do things so rapidly, that it’s hard to just be in the moment.
Marielle Berg
Yes, so we’re eating breakfast while we’re listening to a podcast or responding to emails or planning how our days gonna go or driving. I mean, there’s such a multitasking, which is not very effective. Yeah, so our attention is pulled in all these different directions. And when your attention is pulled in so many different directions, it’s more likely that you are going to be reactive, or react out of habitual ways of responding. Versus when you’re more mindful, you have a lot more choice about how you respond, you have to think about what’s most effective right now. So mindfulness is also the opposite of being on automatic pilot. So when you’re on automatic pilot, you’re just doing things habitually, which again, is not to say that doing things habitually isn’t effective at times, certainly, you know, you wake up in the morning, your alarm goes off, you have to brush your teeth, take a shower, whatever your morning routine is drink your coffee, get to work, there can be real efficacy and just doing things out of habit. But if your supervisor says some gives you some feedback that feels critical, and you are not mindful in your response may come out in a way that’s more habitually defensive, or potentially attacking.
Ed Fowler
Or sometimes being very apologetic. So sometimes responding to criticism with attack, sometimes responding with like compulsive apologizing. And again, the human brain runs on habits like we cannot think about every single thing that we do. And some of the habits that of thinking that we have, can lead us away from where we want to go. So being able to be mindful and really be, take a moment of pause to see what’s happening right now. And then be able to choose from that place of pause instead of just on autopilot. mindlessly, acting or reacting can give us so many more options.
Marielle Berg
I think it’s the secret ingredient. If you feel overwhelmed by your emotions, mindfulness can really help you step back, and not be controlled by intense feelings. So if you feel out of control with your emotions, mindfulness is, as I said, the secret ingredient, or the key to help you wake up to the present moment. So when you’re practicing mindfulness, you are paying attention to both what’s going on outside of you. So what you see here, what you might be able to touch, what you might smell, so the outside world, focusing on your senses. When you’re mindful, you’re also paying attention to what’s going on inside of you, such as thoughts, bodily sensations, feelings in your body. So mindfulness is both external and internal. And if you can control your attention through mindfulness, a whole world of choice opens up. As we said, a moment ago, you no longer have to act and react, and have habit fear, or rapidly changing emotions.
Ed Fowler
I think that when we talk about mindfulness, I think, especially Marielle, for us, having practiced this, we know the benefits of it. And for me, the reality is, even though I’ve been practicing mindfulness for a long time, I still actually find it pretty hard. At times, it’s hard to do that I’m just so used to going, going going. And so it can sound a little bit throw away of like, oh, yeah, just practice mindfulness be in the moment. And when we talk about mindfulness in general, but certainly in DBT, we talk about it as a practice of really developing our ability to try to be in the moment. And I think for me, it helps to remind myself that just trying to take a pause and be in the moment, notice what’s going on internally and outside of myself, can make a big difference, even if it is literally one moment is all I can do. And when we practice mindfulness, we often do it by going back and forth between being distracted and coming back to being in the moment and being distracted and being in a moment. And that back and forth is actually really helpful to build the skill of when we get distracted, pulling ourselves back.
Marielle Berg
So that’s a great point Ed. When we’re practicing mindfulness, it’s really normal to have it be challenging and have your mind wander, especially if you’re new to it. So if you’re doing a more internal sort of closing your eyes, focusing on your breath, mindfulness exercise. If your mind wanders 100 times during a five minute mindfulness exercise, and you bring it back to the moment, 100 times, that’s 100 moments of mindfulness.
Ed Fowler
Exactly.
Marielle Berg
So let’s talk about some more of the things that kind of come up when people are first practicing mindfulness and some of the obstacles that get in in folks way. So a common one is I’m not doing this right. Or as we can often hear, I just can’t do mindfulness. Often. I think that what one of the things that can be behind the thinking, or the feeling that I can’t do mindfulness, or I’m just not good at that is because most people, if not everyone, our minds, don’t stop thinking, This is what our minds do. So as I said, a moment ago, every time you notice that, and you can bring it back to whatever your mindfulness exercise is, great, that’s a moment of being mindful. And give yourself kudos, even if you sink into mindfulness for just a few seconds during a mindfulness exercise, that is building your mindfulness muscle. So I think a lot of people get discouraged in the beginning, when they’re practicing. They’re like, I can’t do this, when what’s happening is completely normal.
Ed Fowler
And I think oftentimes, it seems like, oh, I should be meditating for 10 minutes. And I think a moment ago, you said, you know, like, oh, for practicing mindfulness for five minutes. And I was like, oh, that sounds like a long time. And so again, for me, personally, one minute, is really a good enough practice. And one moment of noticing that I am thinking a lot, I’m really distracted. And just taking a moment to notice what’s right in front of me. And just do that for one moment, and then go back is much easier than okay better, you know, set some time aside to go and sit and be quiet and be mindful. That seems like too much pressure.
Marielle Berg
Mm hmm. And so on that note, especially if you’re new, but even if you’re not the, you can get creative about different ways of practicing mindfulness, you can practice mindfulness while you’re washing the dishes, you’re with the feel of the sponge in your hand, maybe the smell of the soap, the temperature of the water. So being with the full experience of washing the dishes, versus doing something else, having your mind wander, you can be mindful while you’re doing any daily mundane tasks, brushing your teeth.
Ed Fowler
Yeah, walking, like while you’re walking. Driving, I got it for me, I tend to be extremely mindless when I’m driving, which is not a good thing. And it’s so much autopilot, literally. And so being able to just notice the road in front of me to notice what’s around me to notice the feel of my hands on the steering wheel is very different than driving and thinking over and over and over again about the things that I’m worried about.
Marielle Berg
And so in our next episode, we’re going to delve into the what and the how skills of mindfulness. So those are skills that tell you what to actually do when you practice mindfulness, and then how to do the wider power, you’re practicing mindfulness. So we’ll go into a lot of detail. But for now, we just wanted to give you an introduction to mindfulness, to explain a bit why it’s so important. And to talk about some of the things that come up are some of the obstacles in the way of practicing. And I want to mention just a few more. Those before we get off, let me just say a couple more. So sometimes we will hear people say, Oh, I don’t feel relaxed, when I’m doing mindfulness. And so the goal of mindfulness isn’t necessarily relaxation. The goal is paying attention to the present moment. And sometimes, or maybe a lot of the time, when we focus our full attention on the present moment, it may feel relaxing, because our nervous system can calm down when we focus on one thing at a time, but other times it doesn’t. So if you are practicing mindfulness of your emotion, and your emotion is really strong, and it’s in very intense, perhaps jealousy, let’s say as an example, you’re not going to feel particularly relaxed. So don’t feel like you’re doing it wrong if you don’t feel relaxed.
Ed Fowler
I think one of the things that helps me a lot is there is no wrong way to practice mindfulness. If I am trying to be in the moment, I’m practicing mindfulness,
Marielle Berg
Yes.
Ed Fowler
And dialectically, if I am trying and giving up immediately, well, I’m not really practicing. So it’s, you know, the only way to kind of do it wrong is not to try, to give up. And I think it will be helpful as we get into more detail about what to do to practice mindfulness that it can seem so overwhelming of like, be mindful. But in DBT, again, we lay everything out so clearly of here are options for how to do that. So that it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. So more will come.
Marielle Berg
Yes, lots more will come. Let me just bring up two other quick points. Another thing that we hear often is I get sleepy when I do mindfulness. So that happens when you know usually or maybe exclusively when you’re practicing mindfulness with your eyes closed or even just When you’re averting your gaze or looking down, so if that’s the case for you, it could be a signal, first of all, that you need some rest.
Ed Fowler
Yep.
Marielle Berg
Because when you finally allow yourself to stop, maybe your brain and your body, they just really need to rest. And if you tend to get really sleepy with mindfulness exercises that involve you closing your eyes, go for the more active mindfulness practices that we mentioned a moment ago, the mundane tasks; you’re walking, you can do mindful, running, mindful eating, anything that you’re going to be doing in your daily life. So don’t feel discouraged if you, every time you do a mindfulness exercise, and like similar to the one we lead, or Ed, just led a moment ago, if you got really sleepy, because there’s lots of other ways to practice mindfulness. So the last thing I want to talk about in terms of mindfulness is just a little bit about mindfulness and trauma. So mindfulness practices can feel alienating or scary to trauma survivors, sometimes, especially practices that ask you to focus on bodily sensations such as your breath, because oftentimes, the body is the site of trauma, it may feel triggering, or very unsafe, to bring your attention into your body, if you have spent a lot of time trying not to be in your body. So similar to what we talked about a moment ago, in terms of if you get sleepy when you practice mindfulness, if you’re a trauma survivor, and you find getting into your body to do mindfulness is really hard, try keeping your eyes open, and again, focusing on activities that you’re doing in your daily life. So being mindful of the aroma, the temperature when you are making and drinking your morning coffee, being mindful of the way the sun looks, as you’re on a, you know, sunset walk. So lots of ways that you can be mindful that don’t necessarily involve you really sinking into your body, which may be challenging.
Ed Fowler
And I think being able to notice, if you’re trying to practice mindfulness, what works and what doesn’t work, so that if there is something that just doesn’t feel right, there is no need to force it. And DBT we encourage a lot of mindfulness practice to find the things that do work. So there’s not a sense of like, well, mindfulness won’t work for you, too. So you don’t need to use that skill. It’s like no mindfulness works for everyone in one way or another. Finding the way that mindfulness works is the practice. And so if something’s not feeling right, don’t do it and try something different.
Marielle Berg
So that’s a really nice note for us to end on. If you’re interested in learning more about DBT check out the book by Marsha Linehan entitled DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets. There you’ll find more detailed descriptions of the concepts we explored in this episode. Thanks for listening to today’s episode. To learn more, or if you’re in the Bay Area and want to get started with therapy, you can find us online at Bay Area DBT CC dot com. That’s BayAreaDBTcc.com