Emotion Regulation

During a recent group coaching session we identified eight steps to support emotion regulation, taking us from distraction and suppression towards more intentional responses.

Firstly, and importantly, we discussed that creating distraction or shifting attention is not always unhelpful. Doing so with healthy intentions can be effective when addressing emotional dysregulation.

You might like to look up healthy approaches to shifting your attention, down-regulation, up-regulation, preparation, mitigation, humor, reframing, and suppression to understand what you want to aim for in your own life.

Secondly, we know that some things get in the way of our best emotion regulation. We discussed beliefs about emotions, beliefs about ourselves, emotional intelligence, evoked memories or experiences, mental illness, and traumas as possible barriers to our personal goals.

As our 'Practice for Progress' we identified the eight steps below:

1. Pause

2. Observe emotion without judgment

3. Name emotion

4. Seek to understand

5. Validate emotion

6. Accept that it is with you for now

7. Let it pass/Release it

8. Choose your response

   1. Move to resolve triggers

   2. Plan for next time

   3. Share with someone

Try any or all of the tools and support ideas listed below to help you grow more comfortable with emotional regulation.

• Breathwork

• Coaching

• Healthy Community

• Imagery

• Journaling

• Mindfulness

• Movement

• Safe Spaces & Situations

• Sleep

• Spiritual Practices

• Therapy

Join an upcoming group coaching session for a 15-minute learning session on a wellness topic followed by round robin group coaching. Select your dates/topics at this link and only pay the $10 fee if you attend.

Wishing you wellness,

Rebecca Danae 💕

Sources & Resources:

• https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/emotion-regulation#:~:text=Emotion%20regulation%20is%20the%20ability,to%20feel%20happy%20or%20calm.

• https://www.simplypsychology.org/emotional-regulation.html

• Aldao, A., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Schweizer, S. (2010). Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review. Clinical psychology review, 30(2), 217-237.

• Chapman, A. L., Gratz, K. L., & Brown, M. Z. (2006). Solving the puzzle of deliberate self-harm: The experiential avoidance model. Behaviour research and therapy, 44(3), 371-394.

• Dunn, E. C., Nishimi, K., Gomez, S. H., Powers, A., & Bradley, B. (2018). Developmental timing of trauma exposure and emotion dysregulation in adulthood: Are there sensitive periods when trauma is most harmful?. Journal of affective disorders, 227, 869-877.

• Greenberg, L. S. (2021). Emotion regulation. In L. S. Greenberg, Changing emotion with emotion: A practitioner’s guide (pp. 279–307). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000248-012

• Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. Psychological inquiry, 26(1), 1-26.

• McRae, K., & Gross, J. J. (2020). Emotion regulation. Emotion, 20(1), 1.