DBTuesday: Self soothing - a distress tolerance skill
Hey there everyone! Last week’s DBTuesday we discussed two self-soothing skills, one based on your breathing and the other one based on your five senses. This week, I’d like us to dig deeper into self-soothing using our five senses! This skill is part of the distress tolerance skills of DBT as it could help calming down when facing a crisis.
Down is a list of suggestions of sensory self-soothing activities. Of course you don’t have to do all these activities, you can just pick one or two and you can create your own! As we may be more sensitive to some senses than others, it could be more beneficial to focus on one or two senses, or all of them if you feel that it’s helpful! If you don’t know what sense(s) help, it may even be a good starting point to try them all (at once or over time) so as to identify what helps and adjust from there!
Discussion questions ~
Do you already practice sensory self-soothing?
Which self-soothing activity would you like to try out?
Are there other sensory exercises that you do or that you can think of?
Thanks for reading, don’t hesitate to share your thoughts about this!
Waves ~
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@LinearWaves Hey :)
I do! Coloring - candles or the wax melts - apple is allways a favorite :) or citrus smells. A few stuffed animals and the dog lol. Going outside in the sun and sitting to listen to the birds sing - the sound of the wind through the pine trees
I was just thinking about a weighted blanket - I'm not sure if I'd like it or not but sometimes the dog lays on me and that's soothing sometimes. A massage - I think might be nice to try sometime
Looking at the sky - the stars and the moon - the constellations or the clouds during the day
Thank you :)
@mytwistedsoul
Hey there! It's really nice to hear you're already using these self-soothing techniques! Plus it sounds like they're covering all senses!
I'm curious as well about how a weighted blanket would feel, I've never tried!
Oh looking at the constellations or clouds, these are such good ones! Thanks for sharing them, take care!
@LinearWaves I ordered a blanket shortly afterwards - just got it today. Says it's supposed to help with all sorts of stuff. It came with a user manual LOL! We'll see how well it works tonight :)
Hi, thank you for this wonderful post.
Yes, I already practice most of this techniques. The ones that help me the most long-term are soft things (specially wearing something like a sweater) since it’s something I can take with me anywhere and it’s discreet. The most immidiate one are smells and tastes- I like to drink tea, or burn some aromatic wood and eat chocolate- that’s perfect for winter.
I’d like to try aromatherapy and weighted blankets (the weighted blanket specially sounds like heaven,) and I really should give eating slowly a try. I’m awful at that :p
-Deq
@adequatelyInadequate
Hey Deq! It's nice to hear you're already using most of these techniques, it's also interesting to see that you have more long lasting ones and immediate ones! It's really interesting that you know what works and how!
Thanks for sharing, take care!
@LinearWaves
The self soothing techniques I use mainly use are the ones related to sound like meditations or relaxing sounds. Sometimes I light a candle or have a hot drink to relax as well.
I have just started to do aromatherapy; it's very relaxing!
I will have to use two or more of these soothing techniques together to make it more effective, instead of just doing them individually.
@Harmony8682
It's interesting to see you seem more sensitive to sounds when it comes to self-soothing! Do you think the other senses would work less?
Aromatherapy definitely sounds relaxing! Have you found some scents that work well on you already?
Thanks for sharing, take care!
Hi Linear Waves, You made a interesting point I am a auditory person so that may explain how sound soothes me. Maybe a visual person would respond better to the visual self soothing? I'm not sure if the others will be as effective but I'll have a go at them & see as it's good to have more in your repritore. Aromatherapy is relaxing, lavender helps you relax and makes you sleep better and eucalyptus helped clear my head.
