The Watermelon Game

Distraction techniques can be simple, effective methods for coping with anxiety.

After working with a young client on her anxiety for many months, she told me that she created her own distraction technique. She would use the “Watermelon game” when she was feeling anxious and needed something to help her sleep at night. To play is simple: Take each letter of the word and find something in your surrounding area that starts with that letter. Once you find an item you can move on to the next letter. My client noted that by the time she got to the end of the word she was almost always feeling less anxious. 

The watermelon games works because it is a distraction technique. A distraction technique is simply any activity that you engage in to redirect your mind off your current emotion. Instead of putting all your energy into the upsetting emotion, you reset your attention to something else. When you distract yourself, you are able to manage your strong emotions by bringing your focus elsewhere.

Distraction techniques can be used along with other coping mechanisms. Once your attention has shifted and the intensity of your emotion has reduced, you are then able to cope with this emotion in a healthier manner.