TIPP
When emotion is overwhelming, change your body to change the feeling, fast.
Skip cold water and intense exercise if you have a heart condition, low blood pressure or an eating disorder, or take medicine that affects your heart rate, unless a doctor has said it's fine. Paced breathing and muscle relaxation are safe for almost everyone.
The story
When a seal dives, its heart rate drops sharply, saving oxygen for its long minutes underwater. Humans share a version of the same reflex, called the mammalian dive reflex: cold water on the face, especially around the eyes and cheeks, while holding your breath, slows the heart within seconds.
Marsha Linehan saw a use for it. In a crisis, when emotion is so intense that no skill involving thinking can get through, changing the body can be faster than changing the mind. She built it into a set of skills called TIPP.
The idea
Temperature: hold cold water or a cold pack to your face while holding your breath for about 30 seconds. Intense exercise: a short burst, like running or fast stair climbing, to burn off the body's stress energy.
Paced breathing: breathe out more slowly than you breathe in, for example in for 4 and out for 6. Paired muscle relaxation: tense a group of muscles as you breathe in, then let go as you breathe out.
These don't solve the problem. They bring the intensity down enough that you can think again, and then use other skills.
Echoes in other traditions
- Yoga
Pranayama, the yogic practice of breath control, has long been used to calm the mind through the body.
- Mindfulness
5-4-3-2-1 grounding also uses the body to bring you back when the mind is flooded.
Try it
Try paced breathing now: breathe in for a count of 4, then out for a count of 6, for about a minute.
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Check your understanding
You're in a wave of panic and can't think straight. Why might TIPP help?
Finish the lesson
Answer the question above to complete the lesson.