12 EMOTIONAL CONTROL Techniques

Emotions are natural reactions that allow us to be alert to certain situations that imply danger, threat, frustration, etc. The central components of emotions are physiological reactions (increased heart rate and respiration, muscle tension, etc.) and thoughts. It is necessary to acquire certain skills to manage emotions since excessive intensity can make people experience them as unpleasant states or lead them to carry out undesirable behaviors.

Do you want to know what are the best emotional control techniques? In this Psychology-Online article, you will find 12 techniques of emotional control that will help you handle any type of situation. These exercises are based on psychological studies and have proven to be very effective.

Index

1. What are emotions
2. How to control anxiety and anger
3. Technique # 1: Deep Breathing
4. Technique # 2: Thought Stopping
5. Technique # 3: Muscle Relaxation
6. Technique # 4: Mental Rehearsal
7. Technique # 5: Thought Regulation
8. Technique # 6: logical reasoning
9. Technique # 7: distraction
10. Technique # 8: Self-Regulation
11. Technique # 9: Emotional Education
12. Technique # 11: Assertive Training
13. Technique # 12: Mindfulness and Meditation

So where human emotions come into play four aspects:

• A concrete situation.
• A series of specific physiological reactions or sensations (rapid pulse and respiration, muscle tension, etc.).
• Certain thoughts.
• A type of concrete responses appropriate for that situation.

Anxiety and anger are natural and positive reactions that we have to alert us to certain situations, which are considered dangerous. But they can also be negative emotions that do not work as they should, being activated by harmless stimuli and causing discomfort and inappropriate behaviors. Understanding, knowing and admitting emotions is the procedure to be able to control them.

The anxiety

Anxiety is one of those emotions that you have to know how to handle because they are experienced as unpleasant and can provoke inappropriate behavior, especially when they occur in social contexts (for example speaking in public) or in situations that do not entail any danger (for example going up in the elevator, going outside, etc.).

Anxiety consists of a set of feelings of fear, restlessness, tension, worry, and insecurity that we experience in situations that we consider threatening (both physically and psychologically). That is, "anxiety" includes the following components:

• Frightening thoughts and mental images (cognitive)
• The physical sensations that occur when we are nervous or angry. (physiological).
• Behaviors that are the consequence of the anxiety response (behavioral).

The wrath

Anger is another emotion that can be troublesome. Anger refers to a particular set of feelings including anger, irritation, rage, anger, etc. and that usually appears in a situation in which we do not get what we want.

Physiological reactions to anger are similar to those to anxiety; what differentiates one from the other is the type of situations that cause them, the thoughts that occur in those situations and the behaviors that are triggered.

The authorship of this section corresponds to Angel Antonio Marcuello García.

Human beings experience both anxiety and anger negatively and respond inappropriately to them. Out of survival instinct, we seek specific ways to eliminate negative emotions.

These solutions can be correct (playing sports, meditating, doing breathing exercises ...) or inappropriate (smoking, drinking alcohol, responding aggressively ...). Inappropriate behaviors often have negative consequences.

Now that you know the emotions that can negatively interfere in our lives, it is time to tell you the 12 techniques of emotional control that will change the way you manage your feelings.

This emotional control technique is very easy to apply and, in addition, it is very useful to control the emotions physiological reactions before, during and after dealing with situations emotionally intense.

• Take a deep breath while mentally counting to 4
• Hold your breath while mentally counting to 4
• Breathe out while mentally counting to 8
• Repeat the above process

What it is about is to do the different phases of breathing slowly and a little more intense than normal, but without having to force it at any time. To check that you are breathing correctly, you can put one hand on the chest and the other on the abdomen. You will be breathing correctly when only your hand moves from your abdomen when you breathe (some also call it abdominal breathing).

This technique can also be used before, during or after the situation that causes us problems.

This strategy focuses on the control of thought. To put it into practice you must follow the following steps:

• When you start to find yourself uncomfortable, nervous, or upset, pay attention to the kinds of thoughts you are having, and identifies all those with negative connotations (focused on failure, hatred of other people, blaming, etc.)
• Say to yourself "Enough!"
• Replace those thoughts with more positive ones

The problem with this technique is that it takes some practice to identify negative thoughts, as well as to turn them around and turn them into positive ones.

This technique can also be applied before, during and after the situation, but for its effective use it requires prior training. To practice it, follow the following steps:

• Sit quietly in a comfortable position. Close your eyes.
• Slowly relax all the muscles in your body, starting with your toes and then relaxing the rest of your body until you reach the muscles in your neck and head.
• Once you have relaxed all the muscles in your body, imagine yourself in a peaceful and relaxing place (for example, lying on a beach). Whichever place you choose, imagine yourself totally relaxed and carefree.
• Imagine yourself in that place as clearly as possible. Practice this exercise as often as possible, at least once a day for about 10 minutes each time. If you have been convinced of the usefulness of exercise, remember that you must practice it to automate the process and get you to relax in a few seconds.

This emotional control technique is intended to be used before facing situations in which we do not feel safe. It is simply imagining that you are in that situation (for example, asking someone to go out with you) and that you are doing well, while feeling totally relaxed and safe.

You should mentally practice what you are going to say and do. Repeat this several times, until you start to feel more relaxed and confident.

When we are facing a moment of mental discomfort and we do not know how to manage our emotions, we usually experience something known as a "torrent of thoughts". Many times, these uncontrolled thoughts are negative and do not allow us to seek a solution to the stressful situation.

For that same reason, regulating thinking can be an effective emotional control technique. How can we do it? The first step will be detect the torrent of thoughts and to be identifying what type of ideas come to our head. Next, we can try to write them down in a notebook if we are alone and then work on those affirmations.

Closely linked to the previous emotional control technique, logical reasoning consists in analyzing one by one the thoughts that cause us emotional discomfort and reason them logically, for example:

• Thought: "I'm useless and I'm useless"
• Emotion: sadness and crying
• Logic reasoning: "To what extent is that statement true? What's the use of thinking that about myself? What can I do to change that thought?"

This technique is recommended to do in times of emergency, when we cannot control our feelings in any other way. When we feel overwhelmed by our emotions, we can try to distract ourselves with some stimulus that comforts us such as a song, a book, a movie ...

Emotional self-regulation is a technique that requires some practice. However it is very effective. To achieve self-regulation, we must follow the following steps:

1. Detect and record the moments when we lose control
2. When we are calm, think about the triggers of the situation (what were we thinking when we lost control of our emotions)
3. Identify triggering thoughts before they lead to uncontrollable emotions
4. Learn to regulate our emotions during times of crisis by helping ourselves with others relaxation techniques.

This is an exercise to prevent emotional breakdowns. Emotional education consists of learning to detect feelings and value them without judging them negatively. All of our emotions are necessary on some level and help us to adapt to the world around us.

Assertive training is a technique that requires a specialist to be completed successfully. This group of psychological exercises aims to learn to respond assertively to a conflict, some of the techniques of assertive training are:

• Identify the situations in which we want to be more assertive.
• Describe problem situations.
• Write a script to change our behavior.
• Put this script into practice.

If you want to know more, you can take note of this article about social skills and assertive training.

Finally, to conclude this article on the best emotional control techniques, we are going to talk about therapy mindfulness or mindfulness. This therapy based on the principles of meditation is highly effective in relaxing anxiety levels in times of emotional crisis. It is about stopping our stream of thoughts and focusing our minds on the "here and now", in our present sensations and in what surrounds us at that precise moment. Find out here how the mindfulness in cognitive therapy.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to 12 Emotional Control Techniques, we recommend that you enter our category of Emotions.

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