I want to teach you about the tip skills, which are another set of skills that are really useful for when you're in crisis. And specifically, the TIPP skills are designed for times when your emotions are so intense or your stress is so intense that you can't even think straight. Kind of like when your emotions or stress levels are so high that you can't even think about another skill to use.
The TIPP skills are designed to reduce your stress and emotion enough so that you could think about other skills that you want to use. So TIPPtip skills all have to do with changing your body chemistry in order to reduce extreme emotions as quickly as possible.
The T in tip stands for tip the temperature. And specifically what we're trying to do with tip the temperature is to use cold water to trick your body into thinking that you're actually swimming underwater. It sounds crazy. But the idea is that when humans are when mammals in general swim in cold water, their heart rate decreases in order to increase the likelihood of survival.
When we're feeling intense emotions and intense stress, our heart rate is elevated our sympathetic nervous system is elevated. So tipping the temperature allows us to decrease our heart rate and activate our parasympathetic nervous system.
How you tip your the temperature is to trick your body into thinking that you are in cold water.
The way to do this is to get a bowl of ice water to hold your breath and to plunge your face in that bowl of cold water. Try to hold it for at least 30 seconds. If you don't have a bowl of ice water handy, an alternative would be to take a Ziploc bag of ice or an ice pack and hold it over your eyes, temple and upper cheeks.
If you do this method, you still want to trick your body into thinking that it's underwater. And the way to do that is to hold your breath and tilt your head over so that you're bending over as though you're diving into water. And again, hold your breath and try to do it for at least 30 seconds.
Just a minor note that if you have a heart condition, or are taking medications, like a beta blocker, then we encourage you to actually consult with a health care provider before using the T tip the temperature skill.
