Mindfulness

What Is Rest? – More Than Time Off from Work

What Is Rest? – More Than Time Off from Work

When was the last time you took a true vacation? One where you turned your phone off and completely unplugged from work. Can’t remember? If so, you are not alone. Here in our San Francisco therapy practice, we work with a lot of people who struggle to take time off from work. You may personally…

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Dealing with Emotions that Scare You

Dealing with Emotions that Scare You

How to Deal with Emotions that Scare You  When we are overwhelmed by emotions, the best thing we can do is… feel them. What? Wait a minute. That advice seems counterintuitive. The obvious answer is that if you want to stop experiencing something, you should do everything you can to avoid it. Right? It turns…

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Make More Friends (and Reduce Social Anxiety) with Mindfulness 

make more friends reduce anxiety

Want more friends? Have you ever gone to a social gathering in the hope of connecting with new people… but wanted to leave after several frustrating interactions where you just can’t seem to “click” with anyone? Sometimes it can seem like the harder we try to reach out and connect with others, the more lonely…

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How to not be a prisoner of your own mind

Using one of the DBT distress tolerance skills, Mindfulness of Current Emotions, you can help free yourself from being a prisoner of your own mind.

How to free yourself from being a prisoner of your own mind In our DBT skills group in San Francisco, we teach group members many different distress tolerance skills to ride out an emotional storm or crisis. A crisis in DBT is a moment where you are in danger of doing something you’ll later regret.…

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Do you find practicing mindfulness hard?

The common mindfulness practice challenges

Do you find practicing mindfulness challenging? You’re not alone.
 Mindfulness is the foundational skill of DBT. Mindfulness helps reduce emotional suffering and reactivity. Mindfulness helps you feel more in control of particular thoughts and emotions that may make you feel like you’re out of control. Mindfulness is counter-culture. It requires you to slow down and…

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DBT’s Mindfulness Skill: HOW Part 2

The HOW skills of mindfulness in DBT are how you practice the WHAT skills

In Part 1 of DBT’s mindfulness skills, we looked at the first of the HOW skills of mindfulness – nonjudgmentally. Mindfulness in DBT is broken up into WHAT and HOW skills The WHAT skills are what you do to be mindful. You: • Observe • Describe • Participate The HOW skills of mindfulness are how…

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DBT’s Mindfulness Skill: HOW Part 1

Practice the Mindfulness DBT HOW skills

The Mindfulness skills of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) teach you how to be present in each moment, with awareness and without judgment. Mindfulness skills are broken up into 2 sets: DBT WHAT skills: What you do to practice mindfulness. These skills are practiced one at a time: • Observe • Describe • Participate DBT HOW…

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Want to reduce your suffering? Be mindful.

Learn why Mindfulness is the core skill of Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Mindfulness is the core skill of DBT. It’s the first skill taught in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) group, and it is the only skill that we return to again and again, reviewing the key concepts of mindfulness between each DBT skill module. How to be Mindful Pay attention to the present moment. On purpose. Without…

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More on Mindfulness and DBT

More on DBT’s mindfulness practice

I first covered DBT’s Mindfulness practice in a previous post. It’s such a critical component of Dialectical Behavior Therapy the topic deserves some more coverage.   What is mindfulness? Mindfulness is the ability to notice your thoughts, feelings, sensations and impulses without judging yourself or trying to change anything. When you’re mindful, you can access…

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Mindfulness and DBT: Participate

The Participate mindfulness skill in Dialectical Behavior Therapy

The “What” skills of Mindfulness in DBT In the last two posts, I explored the first two “What” skills of mindfulness in DBT, Observe and Describe. To review quickly, the “What” skills teach you what to actually do to practice mindfulness, and you practice each “What” skill one at a time. The “What” skills are:…

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