Challenge (5 skills a day for a week)

Well here I am back again for another round of skills for the day. It's funny because I am so not in the mood to do most of them but I am showing willingness (distress tolerance skill) to get through it. It's not that I am in a really bad way, it's just that it's my weekend and I want to chill. The way I see it when I'm willing is that it will eventually help me in the long run and really the things I did were not difficult in the least, if not fun anyway. 

 Showed some willingness to do these skills

Skill (Distress Tolerance - willingness)

  Swept the floors, cleaned the bathroom and did the dusting

Skill - Distress Tolerance (activity)

Skill - Interpersonal Effectiveness (FAST - being fair and truthful to my husband that I can do it)

Skill - Emotion Regulation (building mastery)

 

Sucked on a piece of lemon

Skill - Distress Tolerance (feeling a different sensation)

 Played this cool game with my son (he won like 4 out of 5 games)

Skill - Distress Tolerance (activity)

Skill - Interpersonal Effectiveness (GIVE skill as I was being gentle, acting interested, validating and encouraging him)

Skill - Emotion Regulation (building positive experiences)

 

   Lay in the hammock for a little in the sun and observed my breath

Skill - Distress Tolerance (self soothe - feel/touch from the warmth of the sun and movement)

Skill - Core Mindfulness (observed breathing)

 

 

 Ate and drank things that are helpful to my health and depression

Skill - Emotion Regulation (eating)

Skill - Core Mindfulness (wise mind in order to choose right foods for my body)

In regards to food, I have a book called 'Everyday Calm: 365 ways to a better you' by Laurel Alexander which gives tips on what foods are helpful. According to the book it says:

Some calming carbs are raisins, wholegrain cereals, bananas and potatoes.

To up serotonin levels you could have oats, bananas, dried dates, milk, yoghurt, cottage cheese, meat, fish, chicken, chickpeas and peanuts

To improve your GI intake which does something with something to have a calming effect you could have grainy breads, pasta, legumes/pulses, milk, fish, eggs, meat, nuts and oils. 

So there you go. The book mentioned above is fab but it's not all about food. I recommend buying it because I think it's closely related to DBT stuff. 

Till next time.