How to help our patients with impulsivity issues

As Family Doctors, we will inevitably see folks with excessive impulsivity.

They often have great difficulties around “holding space” for thoughts or feelings.

When a feeling or thought is triggered by an event or stimulus, one ideally holds a bit of space for this before processing it, and then takes appropriate action or “inaction”. This “holding space” is like a comma or full stop in our narrative or life story.

Without it, miscommunication, misunderstanding, and excessive unwanted dramas will inevitably occur.

So how can we practice “holding space”.

1. Mindfulness including incidental mindfulness
2. Meditation (formal or informal)
3. Cultivate self awareness
4. Defusion skills
5. Being more present
6. Better emotional literacy
7. Being more grounded in the “observing self” in order to observe thoughts and feelings from a distance.

Maybe you can think of a few more …