Autumn is a season that seems made for mindfulness practices. With the fading light and the fall of dried leaves, we naturally become more reflective.
Mindfulness means being fully present and aware of what’s around us, as well as being in touch with our internal state of being. The practice has its origins in Buddhist and Hindu traditions and was practised for centuries in Asia before it was adapted in a secular form in the United States in the 1970s. Over the last decade or so, mindfulness as a practice has taken off in mainstream society. There are several apps and plenty of wellness activities that can help us to develop our mindfulness skills.
Mindfulness is also a core component of various therapeutic interventions designed to treat stress and mental illness. These include mindfulness-based cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based stress reduction. As a clinical psychologist, when I think of mindfulness, I almost always associate it with DBT therapy. In DBT, mindfulness is one of the core modules that helps to ease distress, develop resilience and build healthy relationships.
The DBT meaning of mindfulness
DBT stands for Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. This is a form of psychotherapy, ie. “talk therapy”, with a mental health practitioner. DBT was designed to help people who feel emotions very intensely and struggle to regulate those feelings.
Mindfulness is one of the four components to DBT. Marsha Linehan, the psychologist who founded DBT therapy, describes a three-step process to mindfulness: observation, description and participation.
An important skill we learn from Dialectical Behaviour Therapy is how to bring mindfulness from the outside to the inside – from our surroundings to ourselves. As a certain fictional character once iconically pointed out, naming something is very powerful. We can consider naming an emotion the first step towards “taming” it. (“Taming” emotions is the focus of another DBT module, emotion regulation).
Examples:
I have just been engulfed by sadness.
My mind just said “I can’t do this.”
This is something we explore further in our 10-week online DBT course, where we also consider how we approach mindfulness. Through facilitated group discussion, practical DBT exercises and worksheets, we explore how being non-judgemental and focused can help us action our goals in whichever scenario we find ourselves in.
However, much of what we sometimes call mindfulness practices neglects Linehan’s third step of participation. You may say to yourself, “Yes, I can set aside ten minutes to practise mindfulness but how do I bring mindfulness into the rest of my day?” Well, by practising in moments of calm, it’s easier to tap into that calm state during the bustle of meetings, errands and social encounters. There are also other techniques, such as the well-known Wise Mind framework, covered in our DBT therapy course in Cape Town and online.
Opportunities for mindfulness practices in Autumn
There’s nothing like the crunch of dried leaves underfoot. Autumn is a feast for the senses and we are lucky to enjoy it both across our country’s natural attractions and in our own neighbourhoods.
Some moments and activities you can use as entry points into mindfulness this Autumn:
Preparing your home for winter is also something you might find contemplative. Varnishing, raking away leaves or clearing drains are mundane tasks but the combination of physical activity and repetitive motions can help clear the mind. The visual achievement of a goal is also very satisfying.
Engaging with the sensory outdoors as a mindfulness practice is a good first step towards bringing mindfulness to our internal state of being. It can be as easy as reflecting on how the changing season makes you feel: Do you regret something you haven’t done in summer? Is there something that you dread in winter? What do you look forward to in the coming season?
Remember to identify and name the feelings. For example:
“I feel sad that I didn’t take the dogs for more beach walks.”
“I am glad that the weather is cooler now.”
As our mindfulness skills develop and we observe our thoughts, feelings and experiences without judgement, we can learn to avoid self-destructive thinking patterns and behaviours. This is helpful in treating anxiety, depression, compulsive disorders and substance use disorders.
How DBT Therapy can Deepen your mindfulness Practices
Mindfulness is one of the core DBT modules. It integrates with the other components which are emotion regulation, distress tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness.
Practising mindfulness is a smooth entrypoint into the other DBT modules. Because once we can notice and describe our experiences, we can also learn skills that help us to accept or improve those experiences.
One of those DBT skills is highlighted beautifully in the season of autumn. Consider: we are lucky to live in a relatively forgiving climate where we can perhaps still tick off our summer bucket list items. But equally, we can notice our regrets and sadnesses, and acknowledge that we are unable to rectify or address them at the present moment. This is an example of what DBT calls “radical acceptance”. It’s a DBT skill that needs careful cultivating so we find a healthy balance between challenging and accepting our reality.
But once we’re confident with radical acceptance, it can be very empowering to acknowledge and accept what we cannot do. In its balance between bright skies and ever more chilly evenings, autumn’s tension between summer and winter is perhaps a reminder of this duality in ourselves.
Deepen your mindfulness skills with DBT therapy
Of course, autumn marks our progression through the calendar, as well as through the seasons. The way in which time seems to slow down during autumn invites us to reflect on our progress through life and on our progress toward the goals we might’ve set at the start of the year. Bringing this natural sense of reflection inwards (as mindfulness practices encourage us to do), autumn is a good time to also consider how we are supporting ourselves to navigate changes or difficulties as they arise now or in the future.
Mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness are essential skills for navigating a stressful world. Together, these DBT tools offer evidence-backed, implementable methods for calming intense emotional surges, responding to crises without destructive behaviour and growing healthy, satisfying relationships.
If you’re looking for proven strategies to help you navigate challenging situations and emotions, we offer both a group DBT skills programme and individual DBT therapy sessions either in Cape Town or online.
