Reducing Vulnerability

It’s almost finals week for me and my colleagues and we have been wearing ourselves thin. We have been depriving ourselves of sleep to finish papers and to study. We have forgotten to eat because there are so many things on our plates. We have pushed through physical illness just to attend class or supervision. We are all pretty miserable. And we should be. We allowed ourselves to get into a vulnerable state and once there it is hard to regulate our emotions and tolerate stress.

I know our experience is not unique to ourselves, our program, or even college life. That’s why they have acronyms such as HALT (Hungry? Angry? Tired? Lonely?) to help create awareness of we we are in a bad mood. So what can we do to prevent this vulnerability to give us a chance of feeling better throughout the day? From Marsha Linehan’s DBT workbook, they have a reducing vulnerability process known as PLEASE MASTER:

• We need to make sure to treat physical illness. When you are feeling physically sick, you’re probably not going to be emotional well either. So make sure to allow yourself to heal and to be compassionate towards yourself.
• Make sure we have balanced eating. Make sure you are eating the right amount of food: not too much and not too little. If you’re hungry or overly full, it will be difficult for you to regulate your emotions.
• Avoid mood-altering drugs.
• Make sure to get enough exercise, even if it is for 10-15 minutes. Do something. Take a walk, run in place, chase a cat around the house. When we are active, it somehow makes us feel a little bit better.
• Are you getting the right amount of sleep? If you’re lethargic because you are getting too much or too little sleep, it will make it difficult to tolerate stress. Pulled an all-nighter? Be prepared to feel more emotionally vulnerable.
• Build mastery. Do things that you are good at because success leads to success. When we are able to do things we’re good at, we tend to feel better.

Of course, these things will not make stress from life go away, but will help give you the energy and strength to tolerate the stress. Do you notice how any of the following has helped with your mood? Let me know.