#17: Why Doing Nice Things for Yourself Matters

Do you have a hard time doing nice things for yourself? The DBT skill called Accumulating Positive Events in the Short-Term is all about doing small, regular self-care. Putting effort into building positive emotions on a regular basis helps build emotional resilience so you won’t get as thrown when hard things happen.

Many folks believe that they have to “earn” doing something nice for themselves or that they don’t deserve to do things just for pleasure. If this is the case for you, it might be surprisingly hard to take time to engage in regular pleasurable activities.

This skill won’t change things overnight - that’s why it’s called accumulating! Slowly, though, you can build up your emotional resilience which can act as a buffer when life gets challenging.

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Please note that questions, and this podcast in general, are not a substitute for individual mental health treatment.