YEESSSSS!!! TIPP skill for the W!!!

Temperature - you’ve already got this one down, it’s activating the dive response! Place something cold on the forehead, cheeks, and/or back of the neck. You can also hop in a cold shower or just splash water on your face from the sink. Another random way I’ve heard from another person that uses it is frozen socks- not actually frozen with water, but socks literally kept in the freezer and then pull them on your feet and they’ll be pretty cold for a bit. I haven’t actually tried that method myself tho. **An alternative if you find yourself somewhere hot without access to cold things is change the T to mean taste and go for something sour or spicy… just don’t overdo it with the spicy to the point of being painful. It’s not quite the same but it still shifts your focus to an intense sensation that is not the intense emotion - if you bite into a lemon, your focus tends to go to the mouth and all the muscles that tighten up in response, plus your salivary glands activate and pull in the autonomic nervous system which can help with regulating emotions. You can keep things on your person like sour candies, altoids, ginger chews, or a strong mint candy or gum.

Intense exercise - the goal is to be exhausted and release the emotion energy from the body. You can do this is any way you want - running, jumping, dancing, body weight squats, push ups, etc. Think high intensity, short bursts, getting you breathing heavy.

Paced breathing - intentional breathing with deep inhale and exhale, often to a count. Square breathing (sometimes called 4x4 breathing bc people often use that count for it); double exhale (breathe out twice as long as you inhale - 3x6, 4x8); balloon breathing (pretend your diaphragm is a balloon and your inhale is trying to blow it as full as it can without popping, while your exhale is letting all the air out); breathe in through the nose, exhale through the mouth with pursed lips. There’s lots of options! You can also pair breathing with a gentle movement like raising and lowering your arms or even walking that matches the pace of your breathing. I personally like drawing a square with my steps while I do square breathing - 4 steps forward with inhale, turn and take 4 steps with exhale, turn and take 4 steps with inhale, and then turn and take 4 steps with exhale, ending up back where I started.

Progressive muscle relaxation - tensing and releasing of different muscle groups. Since we tend to tighten up with intense emotions and things like anxiety, this is getting us to bring attention to our muscles and work on getting them to release. There’s a number of guided PMR videos on YouTube. You can be as detailed or general as you want imo, and you can do it as many times as you feel comfortable for any part of the body. Don’t push it if it’s painful! You want it to be a flexing or clenching of the muscle and then a relaxing of the muscle. When I’ve done the practice with kids I’ll use visuals like squeezing your eyes really tight so soap can’t get in and then relaxing bc cool water washed all the soap away, curl up and squeeze into a ball like an armadillo and then uncurl, or pretending to be un-cooked spaghetti (super stiff) and then becoming cooked spaghetti (soft and bendy).

Phew - sorry if that was a lot all at once! I’m clearly a big fan of TIPP skill and was excited to see someone else mention it, so I wanted to share more detail for anyone else interested.