https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-calm-your-emotions-with-dialectical-behaviour-therapy
- One of the first steps in regulating emotions is being able to accurately put a label on your emotion (‘name it to tame it’). This helps to increase your awareness of how you experience your emotions so you get to know them better.
- Self-validation, or accepting your emotions, is soothing, and prevents extra emotional pain from arising.
- Sometimes you need to calm down your body a bit before you get re-regulated. Doing a forward bend or paced breathing (counting your exhale so it’s longer than your inhale) are great ways to get your emotions a little quieter so you can figure out what to do next.
- To reduce the intensity of an emotion, ‘acting opposite’ to what the emotion tells us to do – literally doing the reverse of what we feel compelled to do – can help.