Before I put my pictures up of the skills I used today I just wanted to say a bit about one of my aims today, which was being non-judgmental. When you're in DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) the goals on your daily diary card have ratings. So if you do any skill they are each rated from 0-6 (0 = did not even think of skill and 6 = did the skill competently and it helped). My non-judgmental stance was about a 3.5. The reason I am putting this as one of my skills today is because I used it. I didn't do a crash hot job at it but I was extremely aware I was being judgmental and I changed what I thought in my head. I didn't reprimand myself for being rude/stereotyping and impatient because that's judging also but I did change what I originally thought to a non-judgmental thought.
Usually the pictures I put up here are skills that I do and put down about a 5 or 6 rating in my diary card. I thought it would be of benefit to post the above because sometimes we do get a 3 rating or even a 2 or 1. As long as we are thinking of using the skills we are putting them into motion. And sometimes that is the best we can do and that's ok.
So here are my skills for the day.
Attempted using a non-judgmental stance
Skill - Core Mindfulness (n0n-judgmental)
Avoided using drugs or alcohol.
I have battled with alcohol abuse for 21 years and marijuana on and off for about 13 years.
Off the marijuana now since Sept 2012 and I have about 3 drinks a month now. Yay me!
Skill - Emotion Regulation (avoiding mood altering drugs)
Was completely aware of what I was doing (I guess you could call it Mindfulness).
When making my salad at lunch today I was aware of every little thing I did from opening the fridge, to getting a knife, to lighting the stove. Quite calming and it keeps you focused on the now.
Skill - Core Mindfulness (one thing in the moment)
Skill - Emotion Regulation (awareness - guidelines for accepting reality)
I contributed today by emailing the Principal trainer of my now ex DBT class and shared a worksheet that I designed based on what I'd learned and an article about meditation/ mindfulness to him for him to share with my ex classmates.
Skill - Distress Tolerance (contributing)
Contributed to my blog which I do honestly hope helps people who may be going through some similar things to me.
Skill - Distress Tolerance (contributing)
I tried Guided Imagery (just by youtubing the words 'guided imagery').
I'm not usually great at conjuring up images in my head on my own but I felt that because someone was talking me through it, it helped.
Skill - Distress Tolerance (Improve the Moment - Imagery)
Now this was fun. I did origami for the first time in my adult life.
Skill - Distress Tolerance (activity)
Tip - when you wake every morning write a little note that has about 10 different skills that you could choose to do during the day (you don't have to do them all but attempt some).
Tip - change them daily
Tip - pick 1 or 2 that you specifically want to aim at accomplishing
Those tips above keep me motivated to attempt what I can. Hope that helps.
One last thing I wanted to say is that I have been told (by my psychologist) that I am a master at using the skills when I'm not in a crisis. It's when I'm in a predicament that these skills just seem to become out of my grasp. So like I have said many times before I practice these daily so that they are there ready to grab in crisis (fingers crossed). This means my last tip to you would be PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.
Till tomorrow (final day of challenge).
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