EMOTIONAL REGULATION

Emotional regulation - is the ability to control your emotional state, it may involve behaviours such as re-thinking a challenging situation to reduce anger or anxiety, hiding visible signs of sadness or fear, or focusing on reasons to feel happy or calm.

Learning how to manage negative experiences can benefit your mental and physical health.

Create space - the gift we can give ourselves is to pause, take a breath and slow down the moment between trigger and response, notice what you feel, the ability to become aware of what you're feeling and become more curious about your own physical reactions.

What parts of your body are you noticing sensations, stomach, heart racing, tension in your head or neck, physical symptoms can be clues to what you are experiencing emotionally and distract your focus and allow some of the intensity of the emotion to go away.

Naming what you feel, ask yourself is it anger, sadness, disappointment, resentment, what else is it? One strong emotion that others hide beneath is fear, being able to name your emotions will help you get one step closer to sharing your emotions with others.

You shouldn't try to avoid negative emotions or be afraid of them, but you also don't have to keep putting yourself in a situation that brings on unpleasant emotions, start to look for patterns that are present when you start to feel strong emotions, this requires some honesty, they can spring up out of our deep seated insecurities, what is happening around you?

 And what past experiences does it bring up for you?

When you identify these triggers, you can start to explore why they carry so much weight and whether you can reduce their importance.

Human beings naturally attribute more weight to negative emotions than positive ones, known as negative bias, like disgust, anger, sadness tend to carry a lot of weight, positive feelings are quieter, making a habit of noticing positive experiences really can boost resilience and well-being.

Key aspects:

Recognising and identifying your emotions as they arise

Management - choosing how to experience or express emotions, not just suppressing them

Flexibility – adapting your emotional response to be appropriate for the context

Strategies;

Focusing on the present moment without judgement

Changing you interpretation of a situation to alter its emotional state e.g. stuck in a traffic as a chance to maybe listen to a podcast

Delaying your reaction- creating a buffer between feeling an emotion and acting on it

Why it’s important:

Decreases emotional swings and emotional pain

Improves relationships fosters healthier communication and connection

Enhances well-being, promotes calm, control and resilience in daily life

Learning to regulate emotions is a continuous process that takes time, but can lead to improved mental health, stronger relationships and improved quality of life.

One of the first benefits of therapy is developing emotional awareness by recognising emotional triggers, to understand why certain situations feel so intense.

To notice patterns in our emotional reactions, when emotions make sense, they feel less frightening. Overtime emotions may still arise, but they feel more manageable.

Therapy focuses on responding to emotions thoughtfully instead of reacting impulsively this can help with:

Anger outbursts

Emotional shutdown or numbness

Anxiety driven behaviours

Mood swings

Feeling out of control during stress

Therapy can create space between feeling and reacting allowing for healthier choices.