Sometimes the goal of distress tolerance is to improve the moment that you are in. When you are in a distressing situation or recalling a distressing event, you may think there’s nothing you can do in the moment to make yourself feel better.
Remember, intense and distressing emotions don’t last forever!
By practicing sensory awareness, we are able to connect our brains to present experiences more easily, which can lead to our brains being more accepting of reality. Below are two sensory body awareness exercises that you can perform to do exactly that.
Sensory Awareness: Paired Muscle Relaxation
This allows you to actively tense and relax your muscles, with the goal of letting go of the tension in your body. As you breathe in, clench the muscles in your body tightly. Feel how tense you are all over as you inhale. When you’re ready to exhale, visualize your entire body relaxing as you breathe out and release the tension from your muscles. You can even say the word “relax”, in your mind or out loud. Do you see a difference? It might be tricky to practice muscle relaxation with your whole body right away, so you can experiment with practicing with different parts of your body. It might feel strange at first, but it gets easier with practice.
Sensory Awareness: Half-Smiling and Willing Hands
Half Smiling and Willing Hands are distress tolerance skills that help you accept reality using your body. These postures can be cues to your brain to help you figure out how to respond to the situation you are in.
Half Smiling is a quick way to improve the current moment. Your facial expressions can reveal your inner emotions and what you’re going through. To practice Half Smiling, first, relax your entire face. You can do this in a few ways. You can visualize moving from the top of your head down to your chin, relaxing each part of your face as you pass over it. You can also tense up all of your facial muscles and then relax them. Once your face is relaxed, gently turn up the corners of your mouth. It doesn’t even need to be a distinguishable smile, but try to infuse it with serenity.
Willing Hands is another way to signal to your body that you are in distress and need to let something go. To practice this posture, all you need to do is relax the muscles in your hands. Once your hands are relaxed, turn your hands palms up, and allow your fingers to relax as well. If you are seated, you can rest your hands on your lap or on whatever furniture you find yourself on. If you’re standing, turn your palms forward and relax from your shoulders down.
DBT Skills like Sensory Body Awareness Help Regulate Mood
These sensory body awareness exercises, as well as many other mindfulness exercises, all work together to help us regulate and understand how our bodies and minds are interconnected. Remember to relax and breathe deeply to enjoy their full benefits!
“The mind’s first step to self-awareness must be through the body.” ― George Sheehan
