Identifying Your Emotions

When put to the test, many people struggle to accurately identify the emotions they are experiencing as they happen. It can be overwhelming. 

Emotions are stimuli, they are the outcome of how humans interpret chemical sensations and reactions. We respond to that stimulus.

If you are faced with a perceived threat, your body is flooded by stress hormones, and those hormones will push you to fight, freeze or flight. Having a stellar emotional regulation process provides you with time to process the stimulus before you fight, freeze or flight. It gives your cognitive thinking a chance to take over and reason your way through the situation with rational thinking. 

Most people learn to recognize their emotions in childhood. Children do this by seeing how the adults in their lives respond to a situation. In a perfect world, all adults have strong emotional regulation skills. 

Unfortunately, we know that this is not true and the reason for this is that they didn’t learn it in their own childhoods. One important strategy children learn (or should) is to count to ten when they feel angry or frustrated. Taking that time to distance yourself from an intense emotion is a positive move. Every action has a consequence, so it’s important that you don’t allow heightened emotions to guide your path. 

When it comes to emotional regulation, there are three key components. 

• Initiating actions
• Inhibiting actions
• Modulating responses 

All three components are triggered by your emotions. You are not defined by your emotions. You can experience sadness even though you are not clinically depressed. You can feel anger without growing violent. You choose your reaction, but that is incredibly difficult without emotional regulation. 

Why Is It Important?

When you are regularly bombarded by emotion-provoking triggers you have to know how to act. Your body triggers you to drink and eat, sleep, and stretch, walk, and interact. Many people view emotions as an evolutionary adaptive response that helps filter information, so we respond without fear or stress. 

There are obvious benefits like wellbeing, better relationships, and increased work performance. And there are those benefits that might not be as obvious, such as assertive behavior, problem-solving, and avoiding regrettable situations, decisions, or actions.

It’s worth remembering that emotions are contagious. Anyone with a perennially grumpy boss knows how that can infect an entire workplace. Likewise, someone with an upbeat cheery boss can feel that mood spread. 

Your emotions can affect your mood, and it’s worth mentioning that moods and emotions are not the same. However, learning emotional regulation can help you improve your overall mood, which can lead to an increase in empathy and compassion.

It is much easier to regulate your emotions than it is to regulate your mood. Emotions are fleeting and generally triggered by or directed at something specific. The brain identifies emotional triggers in less than a second. 

Your mood is influenced by a handful of inputs, including emotions, environment, thinking, and physiology. While an emotion can last a split-second or minutes, a mood can linger for days. 

You don’t need to carry shame with you when faced with unwanted or uncomfortable emotions. It’s a natural part of the human experience and it’s something everyone experiences, just to varying degrees. 

It’s what you do with your emotions that really matters, and if you have strong emotional regulation skills you will find it much easier to cope. Emotional regulation helps balance feelings and can reduce anxiety. Emotional regulation skills vary. 

While some people were raised to have excellent coping skills, others did not receive the necessary behavioral guidance. It’s a skill, and while you are better off if you learn it early, it is never too late to get started. 

At some point, you will deal with spiraling emotions. Whether it’s in response to a mistake or failure, an argument that has provoked your emotions, or you are worried about someone you love, unchecked emotions can cause regret. 

Negative emotions are not the only emotions capable of causing harm. Excitement, stemming from joy, can be negative if it crops up in the wrong context. Ultimately, knowing how to cope with your emotions will help you avoid damage. 

Strategies For Managing Emotional Impulses

We all have emotional impulses. Those sudden, overwhelming urges to scream, cry, or lash out in anger. They can be triggered by a variety of things, from a stressful situation at work to a personal conflict with a friend or loved one.

While it’s normal to experience emotional impulses from time to time, they can become a problem if they’re constantly overwhelming you or resulting in negative actions. If you’re struggling to manage your emotional impulses, here are four strategies that may help.

1. Harvard Business Review says, “Own the emotion. Emotional responsibility is the precondition of emotional influence. You can’t change an emotion you don’t own.” This means really analyzing and identifying the actual emotion you feel and more importantly its sources. 

2. Recognize your triggers. What situations or circumstances tend to lead to an emotional impulse? Once you’re aware of your triggers, you can begin to take steps to avoid them or deal with them in a more constructive way.

3. Take some time for yourself. When you feel an emotional impulse coming on, take a few minutes to step away from the situation and clear your head. This will give you time to calm down and think more clearly about how you want to respond.

4. Talk to someone you trust. Sometimes it can be helpful to talk through your feelings with someone who will understand and support you. This could be a friend, family member, therapist, or anyone else who can offer a nonjudgmental listening ear.

If you find yourself constantly struggling to manage your emotions, it may be worth seeking professional help. A therapist can provide guidance and support as you learn how to better deal with your emotional impulses.

How To Identify Your Personal Triggers

We all have triggers – things that set us off and cause us to react in a negative way. Identifying your personal triggers is the first step to managing them. For some people, triggers can be obvious, like a certain person or place. For others, triggers may not be as apparent.

It can be helpful to keep a journal and track your emotions and reactions to different situations. If you notice that you tend to react negatively in certain situations, there may be a trigger there. Once you’ve identified your triggers, you can start to work on managing them.

This may involve avoiding certain situations or people, or it may mean learning how to deal with your emotions in a more positive way. Learning to identify and manage your personal triggers can help you to lead a happier and more successful life.