Emotions - The Child, Adolescent and Family Recovery Center
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EMOTION REGULATION
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Emotion Regulation
We use this skill to regulate emotions and to reduce our vulnerability to negative emotions
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Goals of Emotion Regulation Training
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Understand your Emotions that you Experience
Identify (observe & describe) emotions
Understand what emotions do for you
Reduce Emotional Vulnerability
Decrease negative vulnerability (vulnerability to the emotional mind)
Increase positive emotions
Decrease Emotional Suffering
Let go of painful emotions through mindfulness
Change painful emotions through opposite action
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Getting to Know Your Emotions
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Determine what is happening in the environment
Identify and describe your emotions and feelings
Be grounded in your body. Notice how you experience your emotions physically
Pay attention to your thoughts
Evaluate you behavior. Figure out how emotions and feelings influence behavior. Is your behavior effective?
Think about potential aftermath
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Getting to Know Your Emotions
Emotion words to describe:
Love Joy Anger Sadness Fear Shame -
Guilt Etc.
Prompting Events of Feeling
Interpretations that Prompts Feelings of _____
Experiencing the Emotion of_______________
Thoughts about the emotion of ____________
Expressing and Acting on
Aftereffects of
____
___________
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What good are Emotions?
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Emotions communicate to (and influence) others
Emotions organize and motivate action
Emotions can be self-validating
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Emotions Communicate to, and Influence others…
Facial expressions are a hard-wired part of emotions. “ Facial expressions communicate faster than words.
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When it is important to us to communicate to others, or send them a message, it can be very hard for us to change our emotions.
Whether we intend it or not, the communication of emotions influence others.
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Emotions Organize and Motivate Action
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Emotions motivate our behavior. The action urge connected to specific emotions is often “ hardwired.
” Emotions prepare us for action.
Emotions save time in getting us to act in important situations. We don ’ t have to think everything through; our emotions do some of that work for us.
Strong emotions help us to overcome obstacles- in our mind and in our environment
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Emotions can be Self-Validating
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Our emotional reactions to other people and to events can give us information about the situation.
Emotions can be signals or alarms that something is happening
When this is carried to an extreme, emotions are treated as facts:
“ I feel incompetent, therefore I am incompetent.
” (Core Beliefs)
“ If I get depressed when I am left alone, then I should never be left alone.
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“ I love him, therefore he is the one.
”
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Decreasing Negative Emotions
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PLEASE MASTER
Treat P hysica L illness
Balanced E ating
A bstinence
Balance S leep
Balance E xercise
Build MASTER y
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Increasing Positive Experiences
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Build Positive Experiences
Be Mindful of Positive Experiences
Be Unmindful of Worries
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Build Positive Experiences
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Short Term:
INCREASE pleasant events that prompt positive emotions
Do ONE healthy thing each day that brings you joy
Long Term:
Work toward goals: ACCUMULATE POSITIVES
ATTEND TO RELATIONSHIPS
AVOID AVOIDING. Avoid giving up!
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What are some healthy activities that bring you pleasure?
“ Coping Skills ” OR “ Distracting Techniques ”
Yoga
Walk the dog
Exercise
Play a musical instrument
Listen to music
Manicure/pedicure
Talk to someone
Take a drive
Go to a coffee shop
Meditation The Child, Adolescent & Family Recovery Center
Be Mindful of Positive Experiences
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FOCUS attention on positive events that happen
REFOCUS when your mind wanders to the negative
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Be Unmindful of Worries
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DISTRACT from:
Thinking about when the positive experience will end
Thinking about whether you DESERVE this positive experience
Thinking about how much more might be EXPECTED of you now
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Being Mindful of your Current Emotion
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Observe your Emotion
Remember: “ You are not your Emotion!!!
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Note its presence
Step Back!
Get UNSTUCK from the emotion
Experience your Emotion
( next slide)
Do not necessarily ACT on your emotion
Remember times when you have felt different
Practice Loving your
Emotion
Don ’ t JUDGE your emotion
Practice WILLINGNESS
“ Radically Accept ” your
Emotion
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Being Mindful of your Current Emotion
(continued)
Experience your Emotion
As a WAVE, coming and going
Try not to BLOCK emotion
Try not to SUPPRESS emotion
Don ’ t try to get rid of emotion.
Don ’ t PUSH it away
Don ’ t try to keep an emotion around
Don ’ t HOLD ON to it
Don ’ t amplify it
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Ride the Wave
Our emotions and impulses are always with us; they come and they go, similar to an ocean wave.
Use Emotion Regulation Skills to “harness the energy of your emotions, ‘to ride the wave’” (Moonshine)
Just like a wave, our emotions will always peak and will ALWAYS break and come down. Sometimes we have to practice mindfulness and wait for the emotion (wave) to crest and come down.
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FEAR
Changing Emotions by Acting Opposite to
Current Emotion
Do what you are afraid to do.
Approach places/tasks that you are afraid of.
SADNESS
Get Active. Approach don ’ t avoid.
Do things that make you feel competent and self-confident
Do one thing that gives you a sense of control or mastery.
GUILT or SHAME
Identify the difference of TRUE guilt and FALSE guilt.
TRUE GUILT Repair Commit
Accept Let it go
ANGER
Gently avoid person you are angry with rather than attack
Do something nice rather than mean or attacking
Imagine sympathy and empathy for other persons rather than blaming
FALSE GUILT
Repeat it over and over.
APPROACH don ’ t avoid.
Opposite Action
Every emotion has an action
ACTION EMOTION
Love Dandelions
“Obsessing about getting rid of all dandelions can significantly lower your quality of life”
Dandelions are traits, habits, or behaviors that are problematic but cannot be completely eliminated.
Addiction
Anger
Unhealthy relationship with food
Anxiety
One can be in recovery and also will need to work on a daily basis to not return to these risky behaviors.
