It’s not easy to stop self-injuring on your own, but there are a few quick tricks you can use to catch those urges before acting on them. All emotional responses can motivate us to do things, but sometimes these things aren’t great for us in the long-run. So how do we stop ourselves from acting on these urges when they are SO STRONG? Here’s my #1 tip to stop self-injuring before it happens.

Change Your Body Temperature to Stop Self-Injuring

It sounds too simple to be true, but simply by changing your body temperature you can have a significant impact on your mood, thoughts, and urges. To stop self-injuring, we start with the body.

Emotions have a physical response that comes with them. By changing the physical response in your body, you can actually produce a change in the thoughts and emotions! Changing a physical response in your body is quite easy, in fact.

All it takes is a quick shower, a dive in a pool, or a few jumping jacks to not only change your temperature but your heart rate, breathing rate, and more. These physical changes have an effect on your brain. It’s more than just distraction, although the distraction helps. It’s a physical change in your central nervous system, which sends your brain a message to “switch gears.”

When you are overwhelmed with the urge to self-injure, changing your body can be easier than changing your mind. Try it out: hop in the shower the next time you feel that pull towards self-harm or self-sabotage. See if the intensity of the urge changes after you change your body temperature!

Click below to learn more about how the brain influences your emotions, and what you can do to take control of your recovery.