Hey guys, it's Dr. may guess what time it is. It's DBT time. Today, we're still doing distress tolerance, and it's the TIPP skill today.
Distress tolerance is when we're feeling really stressed out. Or in distress, we have high levels of emotion, there's a lot going on for us. And we may not be able to make it better right away or problem solve. So we just have to figure out how to get through it.
Like the guy in the picture, you know, he's in kind of a barren, desolate landscape, which we kind of could feel like, sometimes inside. But at the same time, he's walking through it. And he's moving toward perhaps a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, right, it looks like on the horizon, things are looking a little bit better.
When we get through the difficult times, sometimes things start to change. And before you know it, tides turn a little bit.
So let's look at the tip skill. This is one of the newer ones that was added in the manuals revision a few years ago. So this is about changing your mood by changing your body chemistry. I put some chemistry, photos there with little test tubes and stuff, right.
Inside our body, we have all different kinds of neurotransmitters and hormones and different things going on. And when we start to change our body, and what's going on with our body, and we do have power to do that, we can start to change the way we feel and the way we are approaching the stress that we're facing.
This is really a lot of ways about the mind body connection.
If you look at this picture, you can see that the brain and the heart are kind of reaching out and touching fingers kind of like, ET phone home, right? I'm dating myself, apologize. When we change how our body feels, if you ever notice, it kind of changes everything, right? And it's it makes our our emotions different. And it makes our thinking different. And when that's different, we end up taking different actions, and we have different choices available to us.
TIPP skills are great, especially if you're in a lot of distress. And it's hard to think straight. So this doesn't rely a lot on thinking skills, changing your thoughts, this is more about doing something that changes the way your body feels. Here's basically what it stands for.
The first one is tip your temperature. So you can see the thermometers here on the left, reminding you about that.
The next one is intensely exercise. And the last one is I got a bargain on peace. There's a lot of different peace stuff there.
Pacing, your breathing, progressively relaxing your muscles and pairing different things together, such as tensing, relaxing muscles, breath, thoughts, we'll go over all that later in more detail. Okay, but this is the gist of the tip skill. So first, tip your temperature.
Okay, so the main thing that they focus on with the tip skill in particular, is cold. Okay, so there's different ways to do that. If you have ice cubes available to you, you can always hold ice in your hands. And if you're able to take a cold shower, that's certainly an option as well. Or if anything, just go to a sink, turn the cold faucet on and splash a nice cold water on your face. And it's a kind of a bonus in a way because as you're dealing with the cold, sometimes it's so shockingly cold and overwhelming, that it distracts you too.
There's also distress tolerance skills about distraction, but this one kind of has a bonus feature of distraction, right? It's hard to think about other things when you're standing in a cold shower, it's hard to think about all the stuff that's bothering you. So that's one of the perks, but it actually does do something to your body. Alright, so check this out.
They have a thing that they call the dive response. So deep sea divers experienced this. So they found that if you dunk your head and some cold water, let's say you fill up the sink with icy water and you dunk your head in it and you hold your breath. They found that that in itself starts to change your physiology in such a way that it calms you down.
As you can see here, it changes the response to what they call your autonomic nervous system. Okay, so this is part of the nervous system that is responsible for threat responses such as flight Or flight. And when it comes back down, it gives your body the signal that maybe I'm not as under threat as I think I can maybe start to feel more calm, okay, and talk about the body chemistry. I
It decreases your heart rate. So when you're stressed out, your heart rate tends to increase. When you do the cold water, the direct response thing makes your heart decrease, which is usually associated with feeling calmer. It reduces blood flow to non essential organs. And then it redirects blood to the brain in the heart, right.
It's important to have a lot of blood in your brain because your brain is what's causing you to think through things. So if the blood isn't flowing up there, it's hard to think clearly, it's hard to make good decisions under time of stress. Alright, so that's kind of a good thing.
We want our heart in good shape, pumping blood around, and is actually kind of like a brain in our heart, too. There's a lot of neurons in our heart. So we want our heart center to be alive and well and in good shape when we're dealing with stress. And we have to consider the way we feel to and our heart to center feeling.
Next one for the I of TIPP, intense exercise.
If you've ever intensely exercised, you know that it really shifts the way you feel.
It's actually one of the things that they recommend if you're depressed, because when you're depressed, you feel very lethargic, like, you don't really want to do anything, that you just kind of want to shut down and sleep.
The opposite of that is to get active. So when you activate yourself, and get yourself moving in a positive way, it creates a different feeling. If you think about it, too, a lot of our emotions and stress are stored up in our muscles, and in our body. So we feel the tension, right, I feel that buildup of stagnant energy in our body, and that, you know, kind of stiff feeling.
When we exercise, all that starts to loosen up, you start to feel a lot better.
Your body chemistry releases endorphins, I'm sure you've heard this before. So those are the things that are the feel good chemicals. It's like the natural opiates, you know, so when those get released, you feel naturally a little bit better, you feel a little less in pain. It's actually the same kind of stuff that happens naturally that people take when they use opiate pills or heroin.
But this is actually the good version of it, this is the natural way your body kind of produces it. So exercise is one of those ways, and also reduces the stress hormone cortisol. So when that goes down, it gives yourself sensation that you're under less stress.
So with a calm, clear body and mind, it gives you a better shot at dealing with whatever you're going through. Right. So some suggestions for exercise. And these are not a complete list. But you can walk or pace up and down the hallway, if you can't get outside, walk around the block, especially being out in nature feels good. If not, you may be a treadmill kind of a person. That's cool.
If you'd like to run or jog, that's great, but certainly not a requirement, you will have to be in amazing shape to exercise you do what you can't even share exercise. If you're a gym kind of person, and to a gym or a fitness room, sometimes lifting the weights, it's kind of like it's a tension out and it hurts so good in a way, you know, because it creates a tension, but it feels like you're right, you know, and then yoga, Pilates or aerobics or even Qi Gong or things like that a great way to move your energy around and release the energy in a positive way. Whatever appeals to you, it's always good to get your body moving.
And that's a way to change the way your body's feeling. So changes your emotions. Okay, so next one. Alright, so this is a whole series of piece. There's a bunch of slides about this. So we'll do one at a time just reviewing it. And feel free to just try them on your own.
Test it out for yourself. Different people like different things. Not everything works for everybody. But, you know, it's worth giving it a shot and nothing to lose at this point, no side effects.
Pace your breathing. So one of the things that they always talk about is putting your mind on your breath, rather than on whatever is bothering you. And the bonus is, your breath is always with you.
You can always take your mind from whatever it is and put it on your breath. Okay, and you could just start by observing it exactly how it is. And just kind of curiously noticing what's going on.
If you choose to, you could slowly slow it down gradually and maybe lengthen it a little bit. Sometimes they say that if your exhale is longer than your inhale, it suggests to your body that you're more relaxed. Whereas if you're inhales longer than your exhale, it's more associated with tension. So that's one thing to think about.
Some people like to count their breaths, your count as you breathe in, like 1234. And then breathe out 124, things like that. People also tend to count their breaths. So each breath they take is a new number. So Breathe in and breathe out one, breathe in and breathe out too. And it kind of gives you something extra to focus on. The number could be useful, you know, in terms of getting your mind off of your thoughts and onto something else. So it's maybe a word or a number that you're thinking about. So not just the sensation, so it adds a little something extra.
So try it out, see what you think. That's paced breathing.
The next one is progressive muscle relaxation. You may have tried this before, but always something that can produce a very quick and immediate effect. So this is another great way to tune into your body, see what's going on where the tension is, and have a way a method of starting to let go of the tension.
What they suggest is to start with your feet, and move gradually up toward your head, muscle group by muscle group, tightening it as tight as you can.
And when you feel like it's so tight, you can stand it and just let it go. And just notice how that feels. Notice the warmth and the relaxation that comes as you let go. And it helps you be more aware even just during the day about where the tension is in your body. And it gives you a sense of how you can start to let it go instead of continuing to hold on.
And sometimes we're afraid to let it go.
You know, we feel more secure, you know, tightening things up. So there has to be a willingness to take the risk of what it's going to feel like if you let go some of the tension because maybe his feelings underneath that are a little uncomfortable.
But sometimes, you know, this could feel nice and pleasant. Some people do is even before they go to sleep, if they're having trouble sleeping, because maybe there's a lot on their mind. S
You can experiment with that and see how it feels for you.
But as you can see in the diagram, each number is a different muscle you can do one at a time. So each muscle groups bit by bit and just go through your whole body.
The next P is paired muscle relaxation. Just tensing your muscles as you inhale. And then relaxing your muscles as you exhale.
It gives you two things to think about. So it keeps your mind a little busier again, while you're also getting the benefits of breath, and the tensing relaxing of your muscles. A little like, rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time might be a little hard to coordinate, but, you know, maybe you like it might be kind of fun to try.
Another p Yes, the P'a just keep on going. Alright, paired breathing and positive thinking. Alright, so this is a double score.
So you got two P's in one slide here. As you inhale, think of your favorite positive coping statement, whatever that happens to be. And then as you exhale, just tell yourself to relax.
Here's some that they suggest I wrote it at the bottom of the slide.
Thinking about your stressful situation, you might remind yourself that it's not that important. So relax or I know I'll get through this.
So relax or whatever it is for you that you'd like some people like everything is as it should be one of the famous DBT things they like to say a lot. This too shall pass. I will survive you know, whatever it is that works for you.
Give it a shot. So positive statement on the way in and telling yourself to relax on the way out.
So, a little bit cornball moment here, got a play on the word on tip to wrap things up. Right. So in addition to using it to change your body chemistry to get through distress, remember that this tip is a helpful bit of information that could help you cope. Alright. Next, if you try it, you might get a tip like this.
Like someone leaving a waitress, a tip or a waiter, and it's like an extra bonus or a pay off for you, because you'll reap the benefits of, you know the stuff that you're doing. And also, of course, it's a great way to tip the balance from the stress, the calm, okay, so I hope that you're I am again, this will benefit you, and you'll be willing to give it a shot.
Be patient with it, it may not work the first time and if you only do it for a couple of minutes, and you may not get the full effect might have to do it a little longer. Try it first when you're calm and see how it goes. R=Tthen try it another day if you're having a rough day. So try it a few times.
Don't give up on too fast and see how it goes. Okay, something new comes from something new. So hope you give it a shot and it works out.
Okay till next time. Take care, guys.
