The Body Lab
This breathing technique involves inhaling for 4, holding for 4, exhaling for 4, and holding for 4.
(What is Box Breathing?)
This "Thinking Trap" happens when you assume the absolute worst-case scenario will happen.
What is Catastrophizing?
Splashing this temperature of water on your face can trigger the "Dive Reflex" to slow your heart rate.
What is Cold Water?)
This acronym stands for a skill used when you need to "Stop, Take a breath, Observe, and Proceed."
What is STOP?
Myth or Fact: "If I use a coping skill once and it doesn't work, it means it's a bad skill."
What is a Myth? (Skills require practice, like a muscle.)
To do this, you look at a negative thought and try to find a more balanced or realistic way to see it.
What is Reframing?
This "T" in the TIPP skill involves using ice or a cold pack to lower your heart rate quickly.
What is Temperature?
Myth or Fact: "Crying is a healthy way for the body to release built-up emotional stress."
What is a Fact?
This skill involves tensing and then releasing different muscle groups one by one.
(What is Progressive Muscle Relaxation?)
This grounding technique involves finding 5 things you see, 4 you feel, 3 you hear, 2 you smell, and 1 you taste.
What is the 5-4-3-2-1 technique?)
This is the phone number for the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US.
What is 988?
Myth or Fact: "Distraction skills are the same thing as 'avoiding' your problems forever."
What is a Myth? (Distraction is temporary until you're calm enough to solve it.)
Using the alphabet to name a fruit, a city, or a brand for every letter is an example of this skill.
What is Mental Distraction?
When your emotions are at a 10/10, this "Self-Soothe" skill involves using things like a weighted blanket or a soft hoodie.
What is Touch?
This term refers to the false idea that "if I feel it, it must be true" (e.g., "I feel like a loser, so I am one").
This term refers to the false idea that "if I feel it, it must be true" (e.g., "I feel like a loser, so I am one").
This neurochemical is released during exercise and acts as a natural "feel-good" booster for the brain.
(What are Endorphins?)
When you tell yourself "I'm a failure" because of one bad grade, you are using this "All-or-Nothing" thinking trap.
What is Black and White Thinking?
These are objects like "worry stones" or "fidgets" that provide this type of input to help stay present.
What is Tactile or Sensory input?)
Myth or Fact: "You can experience two opposite emotions (like happy and sad) at the exact same time."
What is a Fact? (The DBT concept of "Dialectics.")