Distress Tolerance Skills-Self Soothe

Self-Soothe

A way to remember these skills is to think of calming your five senses.

With Vision:  Buy one beautiful flower; set a pretty place at the table; look at nature around you; look at the stars; fix your nails so they look pretty; look at beautiful pictures in a book; be mindful of each sight that passes before you.

With Hearing:  Listen to soothing music or to exciting music; pay attention to sounds of nature such as birds, crickets, rainfall, the wind through the trees.  Sing to your favorite songs or hum a calming tune.  Be mindful of any sound that comes your way, letting each one go in one ear and then out the other.

With Smell:  Use your favorite perfume or lotion.  Boil cinnamon; bake cookies, cake or bread (anything that smells good when you bake it).  Smell flowers

With Taste:  Have a really good meal and eat it slowly.  Drink a favorite soothing drink (no alcohol or caffeine).  Eat a tasty dessert.  Really taste the food you eat or drink; eat one thing mindfully.

With Touch:  Take a bubble bath; put clean sheets on the bed.  Pet your dog or cat; have a massage or soak your feet.  Sink into a really comfortable chair in your home.  Hug someone; notice one-mindfully everything that you are touching.

Distress Tolerance Skills-Distract

These are skills for putting up with painful events and feelings when you cannot make things better right away:

The first of these is DISTRACT (Take your attention off of your worries/feelings) with:  "Wise Mind ACCEPTS"

ACCEPTS is an acronym for

Activities

Contributing

Comparisons

Emotions

Pushing Away

Thoughts

Sensations

Activities= getting active; doing something

 Exercise or work on a hobby; clean your home; call or visit a friend; go to work and be "one-mindful" when there; play sports; go out to eat; do gardening; play video games

Contributing= doing something for someone else

Do volunteer work; give something to someone else; make something for someone else; do something thoughtful or surprising for someone else

 

Comparisons= putting yourself next to others (in your mind) and looking at how they are dealing with things; thinking about others who are "worse off" than you

Emotions= Feelings (Figure out what you are feeling, then do something to help you feel opposite that feeling)

Read books, watch movies or listen to music that makes you have strong feelings.  Be sure that what you do creates different feelings than the feelings you have right now which are causing you distress.  Ideas:  Scary movies, joke books, comedies, religious movies, or listening to marching songs

 

Pushing Away= Block the situation in your mind for awhile~Use with caution

Push the problem away by not thinking about it for awhile.  Build a pretend wall between you and the problem.  Push the problem away by blocking it in your mind.  Don't allow yourself to think about the problem over and over again (that's ruminating).  Put the problem causing the painful feelings on a shelf for awhile or box it up and store it away.  use with extreme caution, otherwise it could become avoiding which is not healthy or helpful.

Thoughts= Change what you are thinking about

Count to 10; count colors in a painting or tree; do puzzles; watch TV; read.

 

Sensations= Doing something to change one or more of the fives senses

Hold ice in hand and wait until it melts; squeeze a rubber ball very hard; stand under a very hard and very hot shower; listen to loud music; have sex; put a rubber band on your wrist, pull it out and then let it go.