Emotional Regulation is the capacity to experience emotion without either being completely governed by it or having to suppress it.
Emotional Regulation is the capacity to experience emotion without either being completely governed by it or having to suppress it.
Regulation is not emotional tidiness.
Sometimes an appropriate response is tears. Sometimes it is anger, laughter, withdrawal, movement or needing another person nearby.
Regulation gives us enough room to feel an emotion and still remain capable of orientation, reflection and choice.
Someone with strong emotional regulation does not necessarily feel less. Often they can feel more because emotion no longer has to be immediately silenced or acted out.
The practical skill is not “How do I stop feeling this?”
It is “Can I stay in relationship with what I am feeling long enough to understand what it is asking of me?”