DBT Skills Training Module: Distress Tolerance
The Wise Mind A.C.C.E.P.T.S. skills provides valuable strategies in an easy to remember acronym to help tolerate stressful moments and navigate difficult emotions. By engaging in activities, contributing to others, practicing gratitude, and managing thoughts in simple ways, you can enhance well-being.
A – ACTIVITIES
Participate in activities that keep you interested and help you feel healthy, engaged, and productive.
C – CONTRIBUTE
Shift attention away from yourself by doing something meaningful for others. Volunteer, find a cause that is important to you, and be a blessing to someone else.
C – COMPARISONS
Count your blessings and consider times that were even more challenging. You overcame those and this too shall pass. Consider others that are less fortunate and what you can learn from your circumstances.
E – EMOTIONS
Be intentional about shifting your emotions. Watch a comedy and laugh if you are feeling down. Notice how hard it is to stay angry when you put on music, dance, and smile!
P – PUSHING AWAY
Sometimes, it’s necessary to block and not entertain negative thoughts, situations, people, or feelings.
T – THOUGHTS
Replace unwanted thoughts with more pleasant and productive ones. Do something that requires you to use the thinking function differently, like: imagining your successful future, reading a book, reciting song lyrics in your mind, doing a crossword puzzle.
S – SELF SOOTHE WITH THE 5 SENSES
Become more present and focused in the moment by engaging your senses: listen to music, feel warm water, taste delicious fruit, view beautiful photography of nature, inhale essential oils from a diffuser.
Reference: Linehan, M.M. (2015). DBT Skills Training Manual (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Inner Renovations Toolbox 