Page 36 - Vision Manual

things like going for a walk, playing a game with a friend, doing a puzzle, playing with a pet, etc.
Question: What sorts of activities do you use to help distract yourself from stress?
Contributing requires us to find ways to help others. Most people will report feeling better about themselves when they assist other people. This skill doesn’t require you to do big things; sometimes contributing can be sitting and talking with a friend, helping someone prepare a meal, taking someone’s dog for a walk, or helping with child care.
Question: How does contributing to others make you feel? What do you do to contribute to others? What can you do to contribute in a way that helps you reduce your own stress?
Comparisons asks us to examine our troubles and stress in the context of others or our past self. Be careful not to engage in ineffective comparisons which might make us feel jealous or guilty. Instead, look to effective comparisons that cause us to acknowledge that your troubles are not so bad, or that you have been through very difficult times in the past and gotten through them. Also, consider using comparisons to find a role model or someone that helps you to gain strength through comparing stories and seeing likeness and perseverance.
Emotions as distractions can be powerful! Do things that cause you to feel something different and positive. Watching a funny movie, listening to energetic music, reading a positive story, or talking to a friend that makes you smile can all be powerful ways to use emotions as distractions.
Questions: What makes you laugh when you are struggling with hard times? What sorts of things help you to feel something new and different?
Push Away- Sometimes we just have to put tough situations behind us or put them on a shelf and agree to come back to them later. You might not be able to deal with that cell phone bill right now because you’ve got no money, and so you might have to agree to push it away until income rolls in. Be careful, though; this skill can oftentimes become excessive if used to ignore stressors.
Thoughts can work to help us as well as cause us distress. When we distract with thoughts we are trying to fill our minds with so much information or such a directive task that there is no room to think about what is causing us stress. Doing puzzles, reading an interesting book, counting to 10 are all examples of using thoughts to distract.
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