Week of January 25th

Here we are, about one month into a New Year. Some of you may be thinking, “has anything changed?”, “is anything different?”, “am I falling short on my goals?”. As we discussed last week, these thoughts and questions are valid in the presence of change and transition. It is so human to lean towards questioning, judging, criticizing and evaluating ourselves and others when we are experience newness. However, what we know is that this type of mindset escalates our emotions and narrows our thinking. What if we try pivoting towards a mindset of “what is working?”. In the spirit of this shift, we ask you this week to be mindful of positives and reflect on the progress within and around you.

Progress can be a fatiguing concept to reflect on. We are often flooded with negative thoughts about ourselves or distracted by the sensation of lack of forward movement. We understand. Typically, the interference of our negative thoughts and difficult emotions serve as a barrier to seeing the positives- what is working, and what is going well.  Mindfulness of positives is a critical DBT skill that helps us redirect our negative thoughts back to the positive experience at hand. When we think about experiencing progress, we want to first identify what is working. Think about the small, tangible and concrete things that are going well, that are working for you, and that are impacting your future. Second, begin to cultivate those experiences more often and frequently into your life. So very often, we forget that we play an active role in creating our outcomes. Let us start to create positive experiences that lead to positive emotions. Once we have identified what is working well and have started to build these experiences into our lives, it is critical to stay mindful of these positive moments, fully participate in them and be unmindful of worries that will distract from the positive. The goal of this skill and the process of reflecting on progress is to allow ourselves to see what we are doing well, what is working, and what is allowing ourselves to move forward.

This week, we would like to hear from you. How are you mindfully reflecting on progress? What are positive experiences you are building into your life? How are you staying mindful of the positives?