Core Skills

Self-Listening

Paying attention to your own thoughts and knowing whether they are coming from your habit-self or your inner-self.

Affirming

Saying what is true, using an affirmation. An affirmation is a positive truth about us that we tell ourselves because we want and/or need to remember.

Asserting

Communicating something that is important to you in a clear and constructive way. To be assertive is to commuicate your needs, beliefs, and feelings in a way that does not dismiss another person’s needs, beliefes, and feelings.

Brainstorming

Coming up with many possibilities and choices, instead of just one or two, for any problem or course of action. We are not trying to decide the best way to do something, but instead many possibilities so that we can consider them and decide which is best.

Calming

Simple techniques you can use on the spot to calm yourself down when you need a quick relief and time to think. This is what mindfulness is all about.

Danger-Spotting

Recognizing in any situation, current or future, that could trigger you to use drugs or alcohol, neglect your mental health, or act out in a self destructive behavior.

Focusing

Pulling your attention and energies back onto a task when they seem to wander, or you are experiencing confusion or struggling to concentrate. Mindfulness helps us to avoid being mindless.

Forecasting

Thinking through what is likely to happen as a result of what you might do. This means to look at possible consequences for our behavior.

View-Switching

Making an honest effort to understand another point of view about any situation you are considering. When you view-switch, you recognize that you have your own point of view and then you put it aside long enough so that you can clearly hear or understand other feelings and opinions. This is in line with empathy.

Handshaking

This is knowing how to make your first interactions with other people honest and positive so that you can feel comfortable with more people and be able to build healthy relationships.

Humanizing

To have basic human respect for whomever you are dealing with. When we humanize, we relate to another person from our inner slef. We try to see and respond to the person with dignity and mutual response. This is also important with empathy and communication.

Prioritizing

To give priority to something and to choose it as being more important than something else. It is choosing what is most important to you in life, as well as any important decision. It is an important part of decision making.

Resourcing

Identifying the assistance you will need and going after it. A resource is something that contributes to your abilities and power. It could be information, training, guidance and more. Resourcing develops the ability to deal with new problems and situations in a skillful way.

Tension-Sensing

The ability to recognize when a problem or conflict is developing. It involves recognizing your own feelings and seeing feelings in others. This is a simple, but important skill.