Emotional regulation strategies

Have you felt that your emotions direct you? Can't you regulate your emotional states? Maybe you get too upset in certain situations, or you freeze up. In both cases, it would be beneficial to acquire emotional regulation strategies, so that you do not inhibit your emotions or "explode."

Sometimes, we automatically implement maladaptive strategies:

• Rumination: mentally reviewing the situation, in great detail, going into a loop.

• Avoidance: trying not to think about something important that generates conflict.

• Suppression: performing mental or behavioral rituals to "nullify" an emotional state.

Instead, we can carry out adaptive strategies that allow us to adequately confront and regulate our emotions:

• Troubleshooting: Some situations will not change no matter how much we "think about it," and action will be necessary. Once certain decisions are made, actions are carried out that ultimately lead to a change in the emotional state.

• Acceptance: it is the alternative to avoidance, and does not refer to taking a position of resignation, but to the ability to tolerate discomfort.

• Cognitive reevaluation: consists of questioning how you think and contemplating new aspects and different perspectives that allow you to change the influence that an emotion has on you. If you change the way you think about a situation, the emotional impact it has on you will also change.

There are more adaptive strategies that focus on breathing and exercise. However, its use should be assessed based on the clinical profile and a brief training session, since there is a risk of hyperventilation, muscle tension and increased anxiety and stress symptoms.

If you were unaware of these regulation techniques and want to go deeper, or have tried to implement these or other techniques without having achieved the expected results, I encourage you to request a session to evaluate the case.