The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Anxiety

Basic Mindfulness Skills 67

3. To focus on your moment-to-moment stream of awareness

4. To separate your thoughts from your emotions and physical sensations

As you read the following exercises, it’s important that you practice them in the order in
which they’re presented. The exercises in this chapter are grouped according to the four “what”
skills, and each exercise builds on the previous exercise.

Exercise: Focus on a Single Minute

This is the first exercise that will help you focus more fully on the present moment. It’s simple to
do, but it often has an amazing effect. Its purpose is to help you become more mindful of your
own sense of time. For this exercise, you’ll need a watch with a second hand or, preferably, a
stopwatch.
Many people feel that time goes by very quickly. As a result, they’re always in a rush to do
things and they’re always thinking about the next thing they have to do or the next thing that could
go wrong. Unfortunately, this just makes them more unmindful of what they’re doing in the present
moment. Other people feel that time goes by very slowly. As a result, they feel like they have more
time than they actually do and they frequently find themselves running late. This simple exercise
will help you become more mindful of how quickly or slowly time actually does go by.

Instructions

To begin this exercise, find a comfortable place to sit in a room where you won’t be disturbed for
a few minutes and turn off any distracting sounds. Begin timing yourself with your watch or stopwatch.
Then, without counting the seconds or looking at the watch, simply sit wherever you are. When you
think that one minute has passed, check the watch again, or stop the timer. Note how much time really
has passed.

Did you allow less than a full minute to pass? If so, how long was it—a few seconds, twenty
seconds, forty seconds? If it wasn’t a full minute, consider how this affects you. Are you always in
a rush to do things because you don’t think you have enough time? If so, what does the result of
this exercise mean for you?
Or did you allow more than a minute to pass? If so, how long was it—one-and-a-half minutes,
two minutes? If so, consider how this affects you. Are you frequently late for appointments because
you think that you have more time than you really do? If so, what does the result of this exercise
mean for you?
Whatever your results were, one of the purposes of learning mindfulness skills is to help you
develop a more accurate awareness of all your moment-to-moment experiences, including your
perception of time. If you’d like, return to this exercise in a few weeks after you’ve been practicing
your mindfulness skills and see if your perception of time has changed.