Emotion Regulation (understand & change emotions)
Emotion Regulation skills help you understand your emotions, reduce your vulnerability to intense emotional reactions, and change unwanted emotions when they arise. The goal isn't to eliminate emotions — they're valuable signals — but to reduce suffering and increase your ability to respond skillfully.
Goals of Emotion Regulation
- Understand and name your emotions
- Decrease the frequency of unwanted emotions
- Reduce emotional vulnerability
- Decrease emotional suffering
- Increase positive emotional experiences
Key Skills
- STOP — Pause before acting on emotional impulse
- Check the Facts — Evaluate whether your emotion fits the situation
- Opposite Action — Act opposite to the emotion's action urge when the emotion doesn't fit the facts
- PLEASE — Reduce vulnerability by taking care of your body
- Build Mastery — Do one thing daily that builds competence and confidence
- Cope Ahead — Plan for difficult situations before they happen
In this section
Check the Facts
Reduces emotional intensity by separating fact from story.
Problem Solving (change the situation)
When your emotion fits the facts AND the situation can be changed, Problem Solving helps you take effective action to change it rather than just tolerating it.
Opposite Action
Change emotions by doing the opposite of the emotion’s urge.
STOP (pause before acting)
Impulse control in hot moments.
Accumulate Positives
Increase positive events and emotions in your life, both short-term and long-term
Build Mastery
Do one thing daily that builds competence and confidence
Cope Ahead
Plan for difficult situations before they happen
PLEASE (reduce emotional vulnerability)
Reduce emotional vulnerability by taking care of your body.