Calming Tools for Troubling Times

What a week it’s been! And it’s only Day 7 (as of this writing).

If you’d thought you were juggling a lot before coronavirus, our current situation has added so many other balls (and flaming objects) to keep aloft. Most of us are feeling a mix of emotions: anxiety about health and finances, overwhelm, gratitude for our families, stress about making Pesach, loneliness.

We may feel pride in the kids’ learning — or a sense of failure when they won’t get on the conference call. We vacillate between enjoying the children and not enjoying the children (ditto with our husbands). We may be feeling inadequate and dysfunctional.

Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is a therapy designed to help you manage your emotions, and thereby your actions, so you can build a life full of meaning. It’s based on the dual assumptions that you’re doing the best you can — and that when you fall short of your ideals, you need to learn skills that enable you to do better. Let’s look at how these DBT skills can give you the tools to enable you not just to scrape through this time, but to be the person you want to be.