Mindfulness opens the doors to acceptance, experience, and connection to ourselves and the world around us – myths and misconceptions only deprive us of these resources.  Mindfulness allows us access to more complete and richer information and experiences that can guide us as we work to improve our quality of life.

The first steps toward change in thought and behavior can be daunting and disorienting.  We lose our footing and stumble, and as we desperately reach for something to hold on to, we fall all the way back to square one.  Using these principles as handrails will facilitate your ascent toward dialectical thought and behavior.

Radical acceptance suggests acknowledging your present situation, whatever it is, without judging the events or criticizing yourself. Try to recognize that your present situation exists because of a long chain of events that began far in the past. Trying to fight the moment or deny whether the chain of events should have happened does nothing to change what has happened and can lead to more suffering.

Dialectics refers to the balancing of opposites- the holding of two or more seemingly opposite perspectives at once. Through DBT- an inherently active modality- we seek to avoid falling for the black-and-white, the all-or-nothing styles of thinking that amplify and prolong our disharmony with this ever-changing world of contradictions.  In dialectics, we seek to adopt a both-and outlook and pull away from an either-or perspective.