With
the DBT skills I find huge importance on practicing them
daily even when I’m fine and not the least bit distressed. I choose to
do this because I know that when I get distressed it is extremely hard
to get myself
out of feeling this way. When that happens for me it can easily lead to
the urge of self harming or
ideations of suicide (symptoms of the Borderline Personality Disorder
that I have). This is why I do practice the skills daily – to make it
such a habit in my life that when the time comes where I’ll desperately
need
them they’ll be there.
Recently I have found it difficult to do a lot of work and
have knocked back quite a few jobs. With the help of my psychologist I have
slightly improved in this area and now I am working more hours in a day than I have in
8 months. Sometimes it can be a challenge to find time to practice DBT while at
work.
This
post is to demonstrate that you can find time during a
work day to do many skills on the way to work, during work, at lunch
time and after work. The idea is to have a plan so I stick to it as
to not lose the practice time. I am lucky enough to only have jobs that
go for
1 or 2 hours then I have a gap and go somewhere else for another 1 or 2
hours. Sometimes lunch breaks are the best time to practice.
Before arriving at work I:
Eat a healthy breakfast
Spend time observing my breath (about 20 minutes)
Pray
Do one thing at a time getting ready
While driving to work, (while being mindful of driving), I:
listen to relaxing, calm music if anxious or
loud pop music to lift my spirits
encourage myself by saying “I can do this”, “I have done much
worse than this and have gotten through”, “I only have to get through 7 hours,
not 10 like I have before” etc.
At work I:
half smile (if work is not going to plan, in
meetings, at people I may not wish to be around, even on the phone to someone)
try not to be non judgmental
do one task at a time (being mindful not to
juggle many jobs at once)
At work, (during lunch/break between 2 jobs), I:
might ask a friend to join me and maybe shout them their meal or;
shout myself to something special (a piece of
cake or an unusual juice)
go to the park/beach/nice location
observe things around me non judgmentally
After work I:
continue to use GIVE skill with family at home
go for a walk
give myself permission to
have a vacation to relax from my day at work (after dinner and usual tasks are completed)
Just doing all of those things above in just one day covers about 13 DBT skills. I vary them pretty much on a daily basis but I have a plan at the start of the day. It doesn’t take too much time out of my day to do these and it certainly doesn’t interfere with my work. I believe this sets me up for having easily accessible skills for when things do go awry or if I have to deal with difficult situations that could possibly occur at work/on my way to and from work.
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