Читать книгу DBT For Dummies - Gillian Galen - Страница 46

When you feel passionately about something, it’s easy to react strongly when you feel misunderstood or when someone disagrees with you. If you’re an emotionally sensitive person, you may have been told that you have big reactions to things. It’s important to understand that sometimes reactions — the ones that happen quickly — are exaggerated or too big. This is simply something to know about yourself. That knowledge will help you assess when you feel like your reaction fits the situation, or when it may be driven too much by your emotions. Again, the more you practice mindfulness (see Chapter 9), the easier this practice will become.

People are often judged by others for having exaggerated or larger emotional reactions to things, and this can be very painful. That being said, it’s important to realize that at times our reactions are too big and that this can be due to a range of things, including our own sensitivity to vulnerabilities such as being sick, feeling stressed at work or school, having financial stressors, dealing with relationship problems, being hungry, or simply not getting enough sleep.

The first step to opening your mind to multiple points of view is to accept, with compassion, that your initial reaction may in fact be exaggerated, too big, or too rigid and certain. This involves knowing that this reaction is a problem and wanting to change it. It can be helpful to remember that you are not letting go of your position or belief, but instead, holding onto it while also being open to other information or hearing other perspectives. That is dialectical thinking.