Emotional Awareness
This term describes the ability to notice what you’re feeling in the present moment without judgment.
What is emotional awareness?
Emotional sobriety means being able to stay steady and choose how we respond even when this happens.
What is experiencing uncomfortable emotions?
This type of boundary involves recognizing your limits and expressing them clearly to others.
What is a healthy boundary?
This common strategy involves taking slow, deep breaths to activate the parasympathetic nervous system.
What is deep breathing?
This is the daily commitment to staying substance-free and emotionally stable.
What is recovery?
his common grounding technique involves naming 5 things you can see, 4 you can touch, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, and 1 you can taste.
What is the 5‑4‑3‑2‑1 technique?
Emotional sobriety focuses not just on abstaining from substances, but also on managing these.
What are emotions and reactions?
“I feel __ when __ because __.” is a structure for this non-blaming communication style.
What is an “I‑statement”?
Going for a walk, stretching, or light exercise are examples of this type of coping skill.
What is physical coping?
These people help support your recovery and emotional stability; they may include sponsors, clinicians, or peers.
What is a support network?
This is the skill of being able to hold two opposite feelings or ideas at the same time, a core part of DBT and emotional regulation.
What is dialectical thinking?
A cornerstone of emotional sobriety, this practice means accepting reality as it is, not as you wish it were.
What is radical acceptance?
This skill allows you to say “no” without guilt.
What is assertiveness?
Distraction, self-soothing, and improving the moment are part of this DBT skill group.
What are distress tolerance skills?
This recovery tool involves writing down thoughts and emotions to gain clarity.
What is journaling?
This emotion often masks fear, sadness, or shame and is called a “secondary emotion.”
What is anger?
This 12‑step slogan refers to not giving events or feelings the power to control you.
What is “Don’t let the outside world dictate your inside world”? (or “Keep your side of the street clean.”)
These types of boundaries are often crossed when someone tries to control your emotions, reactions, or decisions.
What are emotional boundaries?
This skill helps you check whether your thoughts match the actual facts of a situation.
What is checking the evidence?
This concept means learning from setbacks rather than using them as reasons to give up.
What is resilience?
The “HALT” acronym helps people identify emotional vulnerabilities. The letters stand for these four states.
What are hungry, angry, lonely, and tired?
The understanding I am not my thoughts or emotions but am experiencing them
What is cognitive defussion
This communication style avoids conflict by not expressing true needs or feelings.
What is passive communication?
This term refers to building habits that strengthen resilience before stress happens.
What is proactive coping?
Emotional sobriety recognizes that cravings often come from this type of trigger — thoughts, memories, or emotions inside us.
What is an internal trigger?