Two ways to practice willingness and ultimately Radical Acceptance / Reality Acknowledgement, is by Half-Smiling or with Willing Hands.
The purpose of these two techniques is to accept reality with your body.
These skills are body cues that inform your brain how to emotionally respond to the situation. You can then use Radical Acceptance / Reality Acknowledgement to acknowledge the painful thing/event/person and, while using Half-Smiling and/or Willing Hands, cue yourself to let go and move on emotionally from the painful thing, thereby reducing the suffering the painful thing could cause you. These techniques inform your brain that the threat has passed (NOT that what happened was “okay” or not hurtful). Then you can begin to reduce your Subjective Units of Distress (SUDs, a scale from 0 to 100 that rates how upset you are, basically–the goal of goal of all Distress Tolerance is to lower your number on this scale).
The more you practice these techniques in moments of distress or pain, the more they will cue your emotions to Radically Accept reality and not dwell on the distress or pain.
How to practice Half-Smiling:
Remember that your face communicates to your brain; your body connects to your mind. This means that a tense smile might tell your brain that you are hiding or masking your real feelings and that a threat is still present.
These skills are body cues that inform your brain how to emotionally respond to the situation. You can then use Radical Acceptance / Reality Acknowledgement to acknowledge the painful thing/event/person and, while using Half-Smiling and/or Willing Hands, cue yourself to let go and move on emotionally from the painful thing, thereby reducing the suffering the painful thing could cause you. These techniques inform your brain that the threat has passed (NOT that what happened was “okay” or not hurtful). Then you can begin to reduce your Subjective Units of Distress (SUDs, a scale from 0 to 100 that rates how upset you are, basically–the goal of goal of all Distress Tolerance is to lower your number on this scale).
The more you practice these techniques in moments of distress or pain, the more they will cue your emotions to Radically Accept reality and not dwell on the distress or pain.
How to practice Half-Smiling:
- Relax your face from the top of your head down to your chin and jaw. Let go of each facial muscle (forehead, eyes, and brows; cheeks, mouth, and tongue; teeth unclenched and slightly apart). If you have difficulty, try tensing your facial muscles and then letting go.
- Let both corners of your lips go slightly up, just so you can feel them. It’s not necessary for others to see it. A half-smile is slightly upturned lips with a relaxed face.
- Try to adopt a serene facial expression.
Remember that your face communicates to your brain; your body connects to your mind. This means that a tense smile might tell your brain that you are hiding or masking your real feelings and that a threat is still present.