🔼: [[🛡️ Distracting]], [[🛠 Pendulation Toolkit]] ###### Self-Distraction > [!IMPORTANT] This note is under construction [[Distract from Self-Harming Behaviors]] [[🔑 The mind can only hold so much|🔑 The mind can only focus on one thing at a time]]. Somatic - [[🕯️ Movement Practices 👟]] - [[Massage]] or [[🛠 Self-Massage]] - [[⭐️ Sleep]] or nap - Paint your nails - Change your hair color - Take a shower or bubble bath - Masturbate - Get [[⭐️ Outdoors]] Food - Eat chocolate or something else you really like, like your favorite ice cream - Cook your favorite dish or meal - Cook something you never have before - Take a cooking class - Go out to eat Animals - Snuggle a pet, feel their fur. Talk to them. - Play with your pet outside - Take a friend or neighbor's dog to the park - Bathe your pet - Go outside and watch birds or other animals - Find something funny, like comics, movies, and collect the ones you like for the future Technology - Phone and internet scrolling - TV/YouTube - Go to the movie theater and watch whatever is playing - Learn about something you're interested in - Listen to the radio - Chat online - Visit your favorite web sites - Find weird and interesting sites and keep a list - Create your own web site - Start a blog - Join a dating app - Sell something you don't want online - Buy something online - Watch a favorite TV show or videos. - [[Video Games 🎮]]. - Reading - Listening to something Spirituality - Pray or [[🕯️ Meditation 🧘|🕯️ Meditate]] - Go to your place of worship and join a group - Join a group at your place of worship - Write a letter to your higher power Hobbies - Describe an everyday activity in detail, like cooking a meal or getting ready in the morning. - Play video or board games - House plants - Do a puzzle with many pieces - [[Language Learning]] - Sing - Play an instrument or learn to - Write a song - Listen to some happy [[🛠 Music]], and collect the songs you like for later - Memorize lines from your favorite movies, plays, or songs - Make a movie with your phone or tablet - Join a public speaking group and write a speech - Participate in a local theater group - Sing in a local choir - Join a club - Knit, crochet, sew, or learn to - Make a scrapbook with photos - Work in your vehicle - Sign up for a class at your local college, adult school, or online (like Coursera, Skillshare, Wondrum) - Make a list of the people you admire and want to be like -- real or fictional or historical. Write about what you admire about them. - Make a list of famous people you'd like to be friends with and describe why - Make a list of famous people you'd like to have sex with and describe why - Make a bucket list at least ten items long - Write a letter to someone who has made your life better and tell the why. (You don't have to send it.) Arts - Take some photos - Read your favorite book, magazine, paper, or poem - Read something hilariously bad - Write a letter - Write things you like about yourself on a picture of your body or a photograph of yourself - Write a poem, store, screenplay, or play about your life or someone else's - [[🕯️ Journaling|🕯️ Journal]] about what happened today - Write a loving letter to yourself when you feel good and read it when you feel bad - Draw a picture - Paint a picture with a brush or your fingers ## Unhealthy Self-Distraction - [[🛡️ Avoiding]] - [[🛡️ Emotional Foreclosure]] [^1]: