Add a Smile

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

It’s easy enough to find DBT worksheets online for free. I’ll admit my notebook from my Group Therapy Class is currently on a shelf somewhere. My room is a chaotic mess, which just makes it difficult to actually do any self assigned homework. Maria mentioned that they went over Accumulating Positive Emotions in their last class so I want to go back and review it once more.

In case the worksheet is just too dry to read or someone was wanting a TL:DR … Accumulating Positive Emotions is about doing small things to improve your every day life. Short term you want to do at least one thing to make yourself happy. You’re building those happy feelings. Like in Peter Pan, the children need a happy thought to focus on for the fairy dust to work.

Accumulating Positive Emotions actually takes a lot of skills from other parts of DBT. You want to be Present in the Moment and remain Mindful of the good activities you’re participating in. Otherwise, you’ll pass through the positive moments without actually experiencing them. A really good example of this is enjoying your meal. Sitting quietly and using your five senses to enjoy the food you’ve got can be an activity of its own. Often times, if you do something else, such as watch a movie or show or hang out with friends, you’ll find that you’ve devoured your entire meal without noticing.

Another big part of gathering these positives is not dwelling on the negatives. You can’t let yourself be tricked into thinking you don’t deserve to enjoy something and definitely not thinking about all the other unpleasant things that are waiting for you after. It’s really easy to imagine yourself being selfish in these moments, but you have to change the way you think. I’m not being selfish. I’m participating in self-care. The small things in the present will eventually add up and start to grow into something more long term.

I tried so hard to do a video for this little section, but I replayed the footage afterwards and realized my fan in the background sounded like a plane engine. It’s so hot here right now! And I don’t have the ability to sweat. So turning the fan off was not an option. 😭 It feels so silly that something so minor can stop me from accomplishing such a small goal! Urgh.

I have to see my Psychiatrist tomorrow and I’m going to go tackle getting my meds so I’ll try to do a video or at least a post about that afterwards. Wish me luck! And thanks so much for reading my blog. I really do appreciate everyone that stops by here.