In my practice, I teach my patients about “scaffolding activities.” These are activities that create an emotional scaffold that gives us the best chance to experience less distress than if we’d done nothing to care for ourselves. These are simple activities we can commit to doing on a regular basis, maybe daily or weekly.
I’ll walk you through what this may look like for you. What’s the most intensive thing you can think of to deal with negative thoughts, habits, and emotions? Some people might say talk therapy. Others might say medication or even inpatient mental health care. Those are all quite intensive.
Let’s take a moment to think of other approaches that help us feel even a little bit better. One of my scaffolding activities is mowing the yard. It doesn’t bear much resemblance to talk therapy, but focusing on that for a while does “move the needle” down just a little. Other activities may be playing with our pets, doing yoga, meditating, taking a hot shower and practicing hygiene routines, or even chopping vegetables.
What are some of your unique scaffolding activities that help you care for yourself by eliminating small amounts of distress?
