Mental Health Tip - The 10 Second Check-In Here's a habit that can help you handle difficult emotions a little better. As a psychotherapist, I teach the 10-second check-in to many...

Mental Health Tip - The 10 Second Check-In Here's a habit that can help you handle difficult emotions a little better. As a psychotherapist, I teach the 10-second check-in to many of my clients. The next time you feel angry, anxious, overwhelmed or have some other strong emotion, pause and ask yourself whether you can feel that emotion for ten seconds without acting from the emotion. Our reactions could happen very quickly. You may feel anxious and immediately start trying to fix it to make it go away, or you feel angry and snap at someone before you have decided how you want to respond rationally. Those ten seconds create a small gap between feeling the emotion and reacting to it. Use that time to notice what you are feeling, name it and wait before doing anything about it. For example, with anxiety, you might simply say to yourself, I feel anxious right now, I notice the anxiety, and I can wait ten seconds before I try to fix it. The feeling may still be uncomfortable when the ten seconds are up. But you have given yourself a moment to choose rationally what you do next. Try it today with something mildly stressful. Let the discomfort be there for ten seconds before you act. You may find that you have a little more choice than it first seemed. Download my free mental health check in guide by visiting my profile.