I’ve been in Dublin for a full week now, so only one more week to go with my self-quarantine! I’m looking forward to getting out of the apartment and exploring the city more. Today the weather is partly cloudy and sunny. I have the windows open to air out the place.
Still no Internet in the apartment. The provider was supposed to show up yesterday, Wednesday, between 1:00 and 5:00pm. I was in the apartment the entire time and did not receive a call or buzz over the building intercom. My landlord is following up, he seems quite fed up with them at this point.
Last night (technically, very early this morning) I attended my first dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) group session via Zoom offered through the San Francisco DBT Center. I had been added to a waiting list months ago, and in August a spot opened up for Wednesdays at 5:30pm Pacific time. At that point, I hadn’t yet made the final decision to move to Ireland so I took the opening. However, this means for me that the 1.5 hour weekly sessions run 1:30-3:00am Dublin time. I had gotten up even earlier than usual Wednesday morning and was able to take a long nap from 7:00-11:00pm so that I would be able to stay awake for session. That seemed to do the trick, but unfortunately because I’m still limited to using my phone’s data service as a hotspot for other devices, the connection was poor. I probably got about 80% of the content, but I found all the material useful. Thankfully, my insurance (which is still through the University of California on COBRA) covers the cost. DBT is organized into training modules and focuses on skills building. The training modules, which can be taken in any order, are: 1) core mindfulness, 2) distress tolerance, 3) emotion regulation, and 4) interpersonal effectiveness. I’m starting off with the module for core mindfulness, which to me sounds like the ideal one to do first. Although it is a group training program, participants aren’t expected or encouraged to share a lot from their personal experiences so it’s not what most people imagine as “group therapy.” Most of the time was taken up by the two co-facilitators who talked through some handouts sent to the group in advance. The key takeaway from the first session was the concept of “Wise Mind” that is at the intersection between “Rational Mind” and “Emotional Mind,” illustrated as follows:
Our homework for the next week is to practice some mindfulness exercises as outlined in the handout materials. The facilitators made a point to distinguish mindfulness from meditation. Meditation is one way of practicing mindfulness, but it’s not the only one. What’s important is for each person to find a mindfulness practice that works for them in finding their Wise Mind. A lot of this resonates with concepts that are familiar to me through individual therapy and personal reading I’ve done over the years, but DBT takes them a step further. I’m grateful to have this resource available to me, despite the inconvenient scheduling. I did send a follow up email to the facilitators explaining my situation and asking if there might be an opening in a group session scheduled earlier in the day (I believe there’s another group that convenes Thursday at 1:00pm Pacific time, which would only be 9:00pm Dublin time). Otherwise, I’ll just have to get accustomed to staying up late on Wednesday nights / early Thursday mornings, at least for the next couple of months.
After the Zoom call ended, I tuned into the U.S. vice presidential debate that was already in progress. I found it quite captivating. Kamala Harris was the clear winner in my opinion. Mike Pence looked so pale and robotic compared to her, and the fly that landed on his stark white hair for 2 minutes certainly did not help. By the time I got to bed it was 5:00am (!), but I managed to get another sleep cycle in before waking up mid-morning.
It’s been a very low-key day with just some cleaning around the apartment, more online shopping (today’s quest was trying to find bamboo sheets that fit my European double sized bed), and reading some articles online. Earlier the electricity in all the wall sockets cut out after I used the rather flimsy toaster to brown a bagel (it did not fit in easily, so I may have overloaded the appliance). Thankfully, it only took a quick call with the landlord to locate the breaker box and reset the circuits. Today will be my first time to take out the weekly rubbish/recycling, so I’ll at least get to pop outside for a brief moment. It’s still not entirely clear where I should take glass for recycling… the closest “bring bank” appears to be on the other side of the River Liffey?! I sent a message to an email address on the Dublin City Council website for recycling services asking them to confirm, so hopefully I’ll hear back soon. That’s about all there is to report for now.
