The Guardrails: Mindfulness HOW Skills (DBT mini-season ep. 2)

About this episode

This episode explores the how skills of mindfulness in DBT, focusing on non-judgmentally, one-mindfully, and effectively practicing mindfulness.

In this very special episode of Friendless, we're continuing the DBT micro-season diving into the how skills of mindfulness: non-judgmentally, one-mindfully, and effectively. If those sound like made-up DBT words, you're not wrong—but what they actually mean is surprisingly straightforward. Last episode covered the what skills (observe, describe, participate). This week is about how to practice them without turning mindfulness into another thing you're failing at. Because here's the thing: you can know all the skills, understand them intellectually, explain them to other people, and still completely fuck them up by making mindfulness a source of shame. The how skills are the guardrails that prevent exactly that. What You'll Learn: * Nonjudgmentally: How to separate facts from interpretations—the difference between "I'm feeling tired" and "I'm lazy for feeling tired" * One-mindfully: Why doing five things at once means doing five things poorly, and how to actually focus (spoiler: your mind will wander, that's fine) * Effectively: Letting go of the "right way" and just doing what works—meeting yourself where you are, not where you wish you were Sign up for the Friendless Substack…

Topics covered

• mindfulness
• DBT
• mental health
• self-improvement

Keywords

• non-judgmental
• one-mindful
• effective
• mindfulness skills

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Friendless

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