Learning Center - DBT Therapy Training

In this section, we'll learn a tool to help us keep out of Emotion Mind.  As we learned in Core Mindfulness, our goal is to remain in Wise Mind.  As we learned in Section 13 - Describing and Managing Your Feelings and Emotions, we can affect our mood (emotions) with our bodies.  We know from the how we communicate model, that our experiences are not limited to what's happening at the moment, but is also affected by our mood and the environment.  Here we present several key factors that we can use to improve our environment and mood.  In an improved mindset, even difficult events can seem less stressful to us.  This can make us much less susceptible to emotion mind and the behaviors that can accompany it.

Concepts

When in High School, I got myself into a lot of trouble.  I was failing my classes (all of them), I was kicked off the swim team, and was put on probation.  Ultimately, I failed my ninth grade year and the school asked me not to return.  My parents decided it was best to ship me off to a military school.  Just a week or two into my first year in this school, my entire attitude, grades, behavior and level of interest in everything seemed to dramatically improve.  My parents joked that there must be something in the water there.  There were no sergeants yelling at me, nobody to whip me into shape like most people think.  This was really just a boarding school with very well defined structure and rules.

There wasn't anything in the water, my "turnaround" was a result of the structure they provided.  While living at home, I frequently pulled all nighter's toying around with whatever interested me at the time.  In military school, everyone went to bed at precisely 10:15pm each and every night.  We woke up, by the blaring sound of a bugle at exactly 6:15 each morning.  Before attending this school, I'd eat at irregular times, I usually skipped breakfast and ate mostly "kid food" (pizza, burgers, hot dogs, candy, cake, fast food).  While at the school, we marched in formation to three meals every day, served at the same time.  Sure, on occasion we ate "kid food", but most of the time they served nutritionally balanced meals and offered a salad bar.  While at home, I spent most of my time in front of the television or "hanging out" with my friends, often drinking, smoking or even having a joint.  In military school, they periodically searched us to make sure we had no drugs or alcohol, they immediately kicked out anyone who had either.  They required us to participate in a training program, a 10 mile jog twice a week, and either varsity or intramural sports.  So I was very active.

Another important part of all this, was they set us up for success.  While most things in the school were challenging, we could accomplish everything.  We knew exactly what it took to pass an inspection, and they provided guidance and time to do our clean up chores.  Our instructors made it very clear how to earn an A, they enforced a study period of two hours each night when all 600 some odd students studied at the same time.  So, we were all successful in many things we did.  Ultimately, I graduated from that school on the "Deans List", very high self-esteem and a positive attitude about life.  This sort of structure still works for me, even today.  No, I'm not anywhere as rigid as I was, but when I feel myself feeling irritable, depressed, unable to focus, poor memory or low self-esteem, I find great success implementing some of this back into my life.