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EMOTION REGULATION

 

Try to so one thing a day to make yourself feel competent and in control.

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It may be something that you are good at. It may be an area in which you are building skills.

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EXAMPLES: Doing homework or chores

                     Writing in a journal

                      Practicing a new DBT skill

LETTING GO OF EMOTIONAL SUFFERING
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BEING MINDFUL OF YOUR CURRENT EMOTION

Treat PhysicaL Illness: take care of your body

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Balance Eating: get good nutrition

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Avoid mood-Altering drugs: take meds as prescribed

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Balance Sleep: get regular sleep

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Get Exercise: everyday!

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Please Master means doing what can be done for your body's health. When you are not feeling well, negative emotions will be more intense.

Ride the Wave

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The tide comes and goes but is always with us, just like emotions and impulses. While it might feel that a particular emotion might last forever, it will eventually shift and change. Visualization of riding the wave of emotion like a surfboard can be helpful as can artwork about riding the wave of emotion. You should stay in the moment as you imagine riding the wave and watching the feeling ebb and flow.

Exploring Your Emotions

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Assumptions: What assumptions are you making about your feelings, yourself, others, the world around you?

Counteracting the Assumption: How can you counteract or ignore these assumptions

Notice Change in Emotion: Identify and describe how your emotional state changes

Future Tripping: Evaluate if you are future-tripping; identify and describe

Meaning About Me: What meaning does the emotional state have to you?

Challenge the Meaning: Contrast or challenge this meaning to you. Think about how this might be related to the earlier assumption

Change Body: Change your posture and energy level. Notice the change in emotional state 

MEDDSS

This skill is all about self-care. Self-care is directly correlated with managing emotions and emotional well-being:

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Mastery

Exercise

Diet

Drugs  (Take prescriptions as                 directed)

Sleep

Spirituality

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Getting to Know Emotions

Environmental Precipitants: Determine what happened in the environment just prior to your current emotional state

Experience in the Body: Identify and describe bodily experiences of emotions

Identify Emotions: Identify and describe your emotions

Cognitions Related to the Emotions: Identify and describe the thoughts you are having about your emotion

Behavior: Identify the behavior that you have engaged in, or have urges to engage in, as a result of your emotional state

Aftermath: Explore the aftermath of the situation. How did you feel? What happened? What were the positive and negative consequences? What went well? What have you learned? What might you do differently next time?

Goals of Emotion Regulation Training

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Understand the Emotions You Experience​

  • Identify (observe and describe) emotions

  • Understand what emotions do for you

    • Communicate and influence others​

    • Organize and motivate others

    • Can be self-validating

Reduce Emotional Vulnerability​

  • Decrease negative vulnerability to emotion mind

  • Increase positive emotions

Decrease Emotional Suffering​

  • Let go of painful emotions through mindfulness

  • Change painful emotions through opposite action

Build Positive Experiences

OBSERVE YOUR EMOTION

  • NOTE its presence

  • Step BACK

  • Get UNSTUCK from the emotion

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EXPERIENCE YOUR EMOTION

  • As a WAVE, coming and going

  • Try not to BLOCK or SUPPRESS the emotion

  • Don't try to GET RID or PUSH AWAY the emotions

  • Don't try to KEEP emotions around, don't HOLD ON, don't AMPLIFY

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YOU ARE NOT YOUR EMOTION

  • You do not need to ACT on each emotion

  • Remember times what you felt DIFFERENT

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PRACTICE LOVING YOUR EMOTION

  • Don't JUDGE your emotion

  • Practice WILLINGNESS

  • Radically ACCEPT your emotion

CHANGING EMOTIONS BY

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ACTING OPPOSITE TO EMOTION

TRUST

This is an acronym for students who come across as scary or intimidating without being aware or it

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Trust yourself

Redirect impulses and urges

Use your skills to be effective

Seen, act consistently with how you want     others to see you

Tame your emotions and reactions

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Love Dandelions

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Learn to love the weeds along with the roses and accept the shadow parts of yourself. Build awareness and accept the parts of yourself you dislike and find unattractive. There are some things you cannot change about yourself.

Build Positive Emotions

Balance negative emotions with positive ones 

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Short - Term: Do pleasant things that are possible now

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Long - Term: Build a "life worth living"

  • Work towards goals

  • Make a list of positive events you want

  • Repair old relationships

  • Reach out for new relationships

  • Avoid giving up

  • Effectively and actively problem solve

  • Do things that are necessary

Build Mastery

Increase Pleasant Events That Prompt Positive Emotions

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SHORT TERM: Do pleasant things that are positive now

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LONG TERM: Make changes in your life so that positive events will occur more often

  • Make a list of positive events you want

  • List small steps toward goals

  • Take first step

WORK ON STRENGTHENING RELATIONSHIPS​

AVOID AVOIDING

Reduce Vulnerability 
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By Using 
PLEASE MASTER
Skills

FEAR

Do what you are afraid of doing OVER and OVER and OVER

APPROACH events, places, tasks, people you are afraid of

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WHEN GUILT OR SHAME IS JUSTIFIED

REPAIR the transgression

COMMIT to avoiding that mistake in the future

ACCEPT the consequences gracefully

LET IT GO

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WHEN GUILT OR SHAME IS UNJUSTIFIED

Do what makes you feel guilty or ashamed OVER and OVER

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SADNESS OR DEPRESSION

Get ACTIVE, APPROACH, don't avoid

Do things that make you feel COMPETENT AND SELF-CONFIDENT

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Lemonade Out Of Lemons

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Take skills and strengths you do have that you may be using in a way that causes harm or problems and refocus those skills. For example, the skill "manipulation" can be used as a positive influence to persuade others for a cause; a person's difficult past and her ability to overcome it can be used to help others.

EMOTIONS

This is an acronym for helping you remember how to handle emotions

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Exposure to emotions - spend time with your       emotions

Mindful of Current Emotions - build aware of       emotion you are feeling in the moment             without acting on it

Outline a plan to deal with emotions: Figure         out how to deal effectively with all of your         emotions

Take opposite action: be mindful of your             emotion while taking action that will bring         the opposite emotion into experience

Increase positive experiences: Do things that     are enjoyable and fun

Obstacles: Determine obstacles to effectively     deal with emotions and how to overcome         them

Notice what is going on: Be aware of what is       going on around you and inside you

Support System: connect with your support         system to help cope

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ABC

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Use this acronym to help achieve balance in the face of difficult situations. When you are having a bad day and something unpleasant occurs, you can use this skill to remind yourself of positive things you are good at and to use strategies you have prepared for this type of situation

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Accumulate Positives

Build Mastery

Cope Ahead

 

Feeling Not Acting

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Having a strong feeling is not the same as acting on it. You can take a Moment to Pause to identify and feel and impulse or urge. You can use a skill to manage the impulse or distract yourself from it. Or you can simply tolerate the impulse until it passes.

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