This skill comes up over and over. You will find it in every aspect of DBT as you move through the skills. It is not an easy skill or concept to learn, especially for us with borderline personality disorder, but we can do it as we practice over time.
One-Mindfully (DBT How skill)
Mindfulness has to do with the quality of awareness that we bring to what we are doing and experiencing, to being in the here and now. It has to do with learning to focus on being in the present, to focusing our attention on what we are doing and what is happening in the present. We have to learn to control our attention. Many of us are distracted by images, thoughts and feelings of the past, perhaps dissociating, worrying about the future, negative moods and anxieties about the present. It's hard to put these thing away and concentrate on the task at hand.
So the One-mindfulness skill is an effort to help us focus our attention on the here and now, to be able to absorb the DBT information and take part in the present. Please do not judge yourselves about this. This can be a difficult skill for people to learn. It requires lots of practice and willingness. Be patient with yourself.
In most DBT groups, all of the Core Skills (Observe, Describe, Participate, Nonjudgmental, One-Mindfulness and Effectiveness) are reviewed before moving on to each new module, which gives you a chance for some extra practice). Marsha Linehan has drawn these skills from Eastern and Western meditation practices.
Check out the lecture on BPD and another on depression by Dr Keith Gaynor of St Johns Hospital in Dublin on youtube. He gives a really clear explanation about how psychology is looking at bpd and exactly what it means in terms of what's happening in the brain, as best they know anyway and what they are thinking about it. I found it fascinating and enlightening in the sense that his analysis made so much sense in relation to what I'm experiencing as newly diagnosed. I could relate to and understand ( laymans terms) everything he talked about. So grateful to him for his help in understanding this very confusing and frustrating disorder that has screwed my life over big time.
@annieamygdala I watched about half of the BPD lecture by Gaynor, and will watch the rest later on. He does explain things pretty clearly. Thanks for sharing this.