Strategies to survive a crisis

Distract yourself with:

1. With activities
2. Give attention to others
3. Test onto other people (ask what they think)
4. Recall opposite emotions
5. Push the situation away
6. Create other intense sensations
7. Change your thoughts

1 – Activities:

Sign up for a new sport or do a hobby. Clean the house, gardening, call a friend of go visit someone. Play computer games, take a walk, go work, go out for lunch, go fishing, or anything you can think of for yourself that will change your mindset.

2 – Give Attention to others:

Do something for someone else, volunteer work, or something for a neighbor. Give something to someone or make something for someone else. Do something surprising or kind for someone else.

3 – Test onto other people: (honestly I think this is not a great idea because it can trigger and  just because other people have it worse that doesn’t mean that you are overreacting or something, but maybe it works for someone.)

Compare yourself with other people who are in the same situation as you or worse. Compare yourself with people who are not doing as well as you. Watch a soap show, read about disasters or other people who suffer.

4 – Recall opposite emotions:

Read books that are sensitive or stories, old letters, or emotional movies. Listen to touching music. Do something that make you emotional. Scary or funny movies, comedies, funny videos or pictures, etc etc.

5 – Push the situation away:

Push the situation away by leaving the situation for a moment. Leave the situation in your mind. Build a imaginary wall between you and the situation. place your pain on a shelf and leave it there or put it in your mind in a box and close the box before you put it away.

6 – Create other intense sensations:

Hold ice cubes in your hand, squeeze a rubber ball. Take a hot shower, listen to loud music.sex, wrap an elastic around your wrist and pull it and let go.

7 – Change your thoughts:

Count till ten, count the colors in a painting, or count anything else. Make jigsaw puzzles or crosswords, watch tv or read a book.

Cherishing of the 5 senses

1. Look (at pretty things)
2. Listen (to music)
3. Smell (flowers, coffee, food)
4. Taste (food)
5. Touch (something that feels nice)

1 – Look:

Pick or buy a pretty flower and look at it with attention. Make a beautiful little corner in your room. Light a candle en watch the flame. set up the table pretty for a meal. Go to a museum with beautiful art. Sit in the lobby of an old hotel and look at the antiques and the old architecture. Look at nature around you. Go outside at night and look at the stars. watch raindrops fall against a window. Go to a ballet show or a dance organisation.

2 – Listen:

Listen to beautiful music. Listen to nature sounds, birds, sea, wind, rain or storm for example. Sing along with your favorite songs. Learn to play an instrument.

3 –  Smell:

Use your favorite perfume or lotions. Rub citrusoil on your furniture, bake cookies or bread. Make coffee, smell flowers or fresh cut grass.

4 – Taste:

Eat a delicious meal with attention. Drink hot cocoa, eat a piece of chocolate, buy yourself an ice cream. Eat peppermint, make fresh orange juice, whatever you choose to eat, eat it with attention on the taste.

5 – Touch:

Take a foam bath, pet a animal, get a massage.  Go sit in your favorite chair as comfortable as you can. Hug someone. touch things and pay attention to whatever you are touching.

Improve the moment with:

1. Imagination
2. Relaxation
3. Praying
4. Focussing
5. Cheering (yourself up)
6. Realization
7. Take a short break from being adult

1 – Imagination

Imagine  very relaxing situations. Imagine a secret room and  look at how its decorated, every time when you feel bad you can go inside it and close the door for everything that can hurt you. Imagine that everything goes well. Imagine that you can take care of yourself  very well. Imagine a fantasy world that is calming and beautiful. Imagine that painful emotions leave your body like water through a drain.

2 – Relaxation

Try to relax your muscles by contracting and relaxing the large muscle groups in your body, starting with your hands, arms then the upper of your head and from there downwards; listen to a relaxing music, go train. Take a hot bath or shower. drink hot milk with honey. massage your neck, forehead, calfs and feet. Let someone else massage you. Take a deep breath. Smile lightly. Change the expression on your face.

3 – Praying

Pray to whoever or whatever your beliefs are, ask for strength patience and wisdom.

4 – Focusing

Do one thing at a time and keep your attention focused on this one thing. If you are doing the dishes pay carefully attention to the temperature of the water, the item in your hand that you are washing, the softness of the soap and how you wash the dirt off. If you are walking, pay attention to each step, listen to the sound when your feet step on the floor. You can do this with basically everything you do. Pay close attention to all your actions, movements or items with whatever you are doing.

5 – Cheering

Talk to yourself in a motivational manner. Repeat to yourself; “you can do this” or “I can do this” or “this wont last forever”, or any other cheer you would use on anyone else.

6 – Realization

Find a goal, meaning or value in the pain. Next time it will be easier. Learn from the situation. Observe so that next time you know better what is happening to you, pay attention to your emotions and it will get easier to get past. Use the situation as a learning opportunity.

7 – Take a short break of being adult

Give yourself a tiny break when you need one.  Crawl into bed and cover yourself with your blankets for a 15 – 20 minutes if that brings comfort. Ask someone else to make a sandwich for you for lunch or to make a cup of tea for you. (offer to do it  for them another time) Buy a magazin and a box with candy. cookies. chocolates or whichever you like and enjoy your magazine and the snacks. Go to the park on a sunny day with a blanket and lay on the blanket in the grass enjoying the sun. Take a break from cleaning or whatever task you are doing and take a short walk in the park. Eat an ice creme.

Pro’s and cons:

• write down the pros and cons

Make a list of pro’s and cons of enduring a crisis. Make another list of the pros and cons of NOT enduring a crisis. Mainly this will be helping when you are engaging in destructive behavior, substance abuse or impulsive actions that can get you in problems.

Put your attention on long term goals, the light at the end of the tunnel imagine how good you will feel when you don’t give into your impulses after your crisis has passed.

Remember the bad things that happened when you did engaged in destructive and/or impulsive behavior.

Goals of the emotion regulation training.

Emotion Regulation 8 is a list of things you can do as an adult that brings you joy.

The list in my book contains 176 things and I wont list them all here but I will make a shorter list because some things are just making me go like huh? And other things on the list are pretty much the same. So this will be a list put together with things from the list in my book. NOT my personal choices of what I like to do for myself that will give me joy.

• Taking a bath or shower.
• Collecting things (coins, stamps etc).
• Going on a vacation, long weekend or just a day or an evening out.
• Going on a date or spending time with friends.
• Recycling things or repairing them so they can be used again.
• Going to the movies, dancing, a party etc etc.
• Listening to music.
• Shopping.
• Enjoying the weather outside while you take a walk or sit in the sun.
• Reading a book, magazine, newspaper etc etc.
• Meeting new people.
• Cooking and eating something new.
• Sport, that could be just any sport really.
• Fixing your car, bike, motorcycle etc.
• Dressing up to go out, doing your hair and make-up.
• Having a relaxed evening just watching tv.
• Thinking back on a nice day.
• Swimming, skating etc.
• Camping, hunting, bbq.
• Needle working.
• Singing in choir, playing on a musical instrument.
• Making a gift for someone.
• Making a phone call with a friend or family.
• Driving around in your car, or on your bike.
• Making pictures, writing poetry, painting etc etc.
• Going out for diner, lunch or breakfast alone or with a friend.
• Meditation.
• Getting a massage.
• Talking with friends.
• Making jigsaws.
• Doing/trying something new, a hobby or sport.
• Doing volunteer work.