Category: Educate Yourself

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Understanding our Strengths

When we are feeling low, we can easily forget our strengths. We can grow so used to our positive qualities that we stop acknowledging them. Reminding ourselves of our strengths can help improve our self-esteem, boost our mood, and even remind us of ways to push through rough times.

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Thought Stopping

Thought stopping is a skill that can be used to interrupt negative and anxious thoughts. The idea behind thought stopping is that we can replace our negative thoughts or worry thoughts with thoughts that are more neutral, or maybe even positive.

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Decatastrophizing

Cognitive distortions describe patterns of thinking that skew from the reality of a situation in a negative way. We have talked about different types of cognitive distortions as well as the importance of challenging them before. Although commonly experienced, cognitive distortions stretched to their extremes contribute to psychopathology.

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A TIPP for Distress Tolerance

Do you ever find yourself becoming overwhelmed with strong emotions and not knowing how to cope? TIPP skills are a great Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) tool to help you calm down in difficult moments by directly altering your body’s physiological state.

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Box Breathing

Box breathing, also known as square breathing, is a method of slow deep breathing that can help you feel calm and relaxed. Deep breathing has been shown to calm your nervous system and can help relieve stress. Additionally, box breathing involves slowly counting to four, which can help distract your mind from racing thoughts. Box breathing has been shown to increase mood, making it helpful for individuals with anxiety, depression, and other mental health struggles. It can also improve concentration and help you to feel more present in the moment.

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Understanding Our Values

Understanding what values are and what we value can make a big difference in how we set goals. It can be difficult, though, to know what exactly a “value” is. Below is a list of some common values that you can rank from 1 to 10 as most to least important for you.

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Nightmare Protocol

We know that sleep is important for our health and improving our mood. However, nightmares can really disturb our sleep, leaving us feeling anxious, spooked, and tired. The Nightmare Protocol is a multi-step process to help deal with nightmares. This DBT technique is really helpful for re-occurring nightmares.

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Body Neutrality vs. Body Positivity

Social media is inundated with posts about body positivity. While body positivity can be helpful for some people, it still inadvertently places emphasis on appearance as a measure of self-worth and promotes the idea that we need to love our body in order to love ourselves. There is nothing wrong with loving our bodies, but it can be hard to love or even like our bodies when we are starting from a place of negative body image. Simply put, body positivity can feel like an impossible feat for many people.

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Practicing Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a state of nonjudgmental awareness of one’s thoughts and feelings. It is about being present in the moment and observing your thoughts without getting wrapped up in self-judgement or worries about the past or future. Mindfulness can be used as a means to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. What are some ways that you can incorporate mindfulness into your everyday life?

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Challenging All or Nothing Thinking

All-or-nothing thinking is just like what it sound:s when we view things as black or white with no gray in between. All-or-nothing thinking is a cognitive distortion or negative thought pattern that influences how we feel.