What are Half-Smile and Willing Hands?

Half-Smile and Willing Hands are powerful DBT skills that use your body's posture to influence your mind. By adopting a posture of acceptance and willingness, you can change your emotions from the outside in. They are skills of acceptance, meant to be used when you are feeling intense, painful emotions that you cannot change in the moment.

How to Practice Half-Smile

1. Relax your face from the top of your head down to your jaw. 2. Let both corners of your lips go slightly up, just enough so you can feel it, but no one else can see it. 3. Try to adopt a serene facial expression. It's easiest to start practicing when you first wake up in the morning. A half-smile is not a smirk or a fake smile; it is a gentle, relaxed expression of acceptance.

How to Practice Willing Hands

1. Sit or stand with your hands unclenched, palms up, and fingers relaxed. 2. You can place your hands in your lap or rest them by your sides. 3. This posture communicates willingness and openness to your brain. It's the opposite of a 'willful' posture, where hands are clenched into fists, ready to fight reality.

When to Use These Skills

Use Half-Smile and Willing Hands in any situation where you are feeling painful emotions like sadness, anger, or disgust. They are particularly useful when you need to practice Radical Acceptance. You can practice them during meditation, while listening to music, when you are irritated at work, or any time you feel emotional tension in your body.