56 The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook
“I’m a good person, not a mistake.”
“I’m good and nobody’s perfect.”
“I embrace both my good and bad qualities.”
“Today I take responsibility for everything I do and say.”
“I’m becoming a better person every day.”
“I’m a sensitive person who experiences the world differently.”
“I’m a sensitive person with rich emotional experiences.”
“Each day I do the best I can.”
“Even though I forget sometimes, I’m still a good person.”
“Even though bad things happened to me in the past, I’m still a good person.”
“Even though I’ve made mistakes in the past, I’m still a good person.”
“I’m here for a reason.”
“There’s a purpose to my life, even though I might not always see it.”
“I radically accept myself.”
Other ideas:Some people find it helpful to write their self-affirming statements on index cards and then
post them throughout their homes. One woman wrote her statement on her bathroom mirror with
an erasable marker so it was the first thing she saw in the morning. One man wrote his on a sticky
note and kept it posted on his computer as he worked. You can choose to remind yourself of your
self-affirming statement in any way that works. But choose a technique that will remind you many
times throughout the day. The more often you can see the statement, the more it will help change
the way you think about yourself.
CREATE NEW COPING STRATEGIES
Now that you’re familiar with all the distress tolerance skills, you can create new coping strategies
for your future. The easiest way to do this is to examine some of the distressing situations you’ve
experienced in the past and to identify how you’ve coped with them. Often, people with over-
whelming emotions go through similar distressing situations over and over again. So in some ways
these situations are predictable. In this exercise, you’ll identify what those past situations were,
how you coped with them, and what the unhealthy consequences were. Then you’ll identify what