DBT Skills That Anyone Can Benefit From

Not many people know what Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) is or what it does. DBT is a type of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which was founded by Professor Marsha Linehan which is designed to treat borderline personality disorder. Today, DBT can even treat a variety of mental illnesses, including but not limited to, bipolar disorder and depression. DBT skills help to achieve this by using behavioural skills such as mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance and emotion regulation, which can be used by anyone and not just those who suffer with a mental illness.

Using these skills in everyday life can benefit you greatly by helping you to effectively manage your emotions and lead a happy and healthy life.

Today, we are going to run through some DBT skills that anyone can benefit from.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is one that has been spoken about more so than other types of DBT skills. Mindfulness is all about living your life in the present, the here and now, rather than the past or even the future. Whilst it might sound easy to do, to practice mindfulness you need to become fully aware of your thoughts, feelings, reactions and actions, and be able to pause these emotions to consciously make decisions for ourselves. Emotions can get in the way, especially if you are angry and it can lead to rash decisions in life. By taking the time to practice mindfulness you can make a fully informed decision, something that will lead to a happier and healthier life.

Accepting Reality

Accepting the reality of your daily experiences is another way to help you and your mental health day-to-day. This DBT skills focuses on accepting more painful events that may have happened. Painful events can lead us to fighting reality which only heightens our suffering, so learning how to accept reality will help you overcome your suffering.

When we say suffering we don’t just mean a death of a loved one, but something closer to  what you experience in everyday life. For example: You need to rush home from work but you catch every red light on the way. Instead of getting frustrated you should tell yourself, “it is what it is. I’ll get home when I get there”.

It may seem like a very minor thing to do, but once you consciously think about why you are getting angry, it's pretty easy to practice and will help you to be more laid back.

Being Non-Judgemental

We can all be a little judgemental in our lives, and this DBT skill helps us to reign that in. It all starts with noticing yourself judging things as good or bad. Negative judgements can boost our emotional pain and we can easily get angry and agitated. One way to minimise being judgemental is to recognise when you are feeling these emotions and pay more attention to the judgement that you are making. Once focused on the judgement you can replace it with facts and your feelings.

For example you could say, “The weather is terrible today”, but instead say “It’s raining this morning and I am annoyed that I have to walk to work”. It gives reason to why you feel this way instead of simply making negative judgements. It is likely after you switch it around this way too that there is really no reason for you to say it and simply apply the accepting reality DBT skill instead.