“What” skills in DBT help us to know what you do when practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness encourages you to connect with yourself and your thoughts, feelings, others, and your current situation. It is incredibly easy to disconnect ourselves both voluntarily and involuntarily from the world around us and become consumed with the negativities of life by being consumed in an unpredictable world of anxiety, work, social demands, etc. A lot of us here struggle with finding our way back from the disconnect into an unfocused world of rampant, intrusive or intense emotions and physical discomfort – mastering mindfulness will help bring us out of that and into the present moment.
what skills
observe
This step is pre-verbal and known as wordless watching and requires noticing what is going on around you without placing labels on your experiences. It’s all about paying attention to the present moment and noticing your bodily sensations. If you notice and urge or negative emotion, let it come and go like a wave.
+ notice your bodily sensations – pay attention to sounds, smells, etc. Use your senses to experience the world and pay attention to the signals your senses give you.
+ pay attention – pay attention to the moment.
+ control your attention – pay attention only to what it is you see right now. Let other thoughts pass through don’t push it away but don’t cling to it either.
+ practice wordless watching – watch your thoughts naturally come into your head and let them pass through like clouds in the sky. notice each feeling and let it float through your mind.
+ observe both inside and outside yourself.
describe
This step requires you to put words on your experiences, placing a label on your observations and acknowledge any thought or feeling that arrises. Describe only the facts without any opinions, judgements or assumptions. Remembering if you can’t observe something through your senses you can’t describe it. E.g. you can’t describe how someone else is feeling towards you but you can describe their mannerisms and outward expressions.
+ put words on the experience – when a thought or feeling comes into your mind or body do something to acknowledge it. For example, if you feel anxious and can feel your jaw clench or your palms begin to get sweaty, say in your mind “i feel anxiety”, “my jaw has started to tighten and clamp down”, “a thought that ‘I can’t cope’ has come into my mind”.
+ label what you observe – put a name on your feeling. Label a thought as just a thought, a feelings as a feeling and an action as an action without judgement.
+ be factual and move away from you own opinions and interpretations – from the facts, describe the “who, what, when, where” that you observe. Remember: just the facts.
+ Remember that if you can’t observe it through your senses then you can’t describe it.
participate
This step is all about really throwing yourself into the activities of the current moment. To really engage and ensure you don’t separate your mind from what is going on and become at one with whatever you are doing.
+ immerse yourself into the moment completely – don’t separate yourself from the current moment whether that be cleaning the house, talking to a friend, going for a walk, feeling happy or sad.
+ become at one with whatever you are doing – throw your attention into the current moment.
+ act intuitively from Wise Mind – do what is required in each situation. For example, a dancer on the dance floor at one with the music and their partner.
+ go with the flow – respond with spontaneity
Mastering this skill and the integration of mindfulness into our daily lives will help foster coping skills and the ability to observe our thoughts, feelings and physical sensations in a new way. This skill will help us to observe without judgement or attachment, and learn to describe our internal and external experience as it is without it becoming clouded by our opinions or judgements on ourselves or otherwise.
Leave a Reply