REGULATION STRATEGIES INDEX
A diverse toolbox of emotional regulation techniques to help you navigate and manage your emotions in healthy ways.
Having a solid set of emotional regulation strategies gives us the tools to steady our minds, tackle challenges with clarity, and handle life’s ups and downs with greater ease. These strategies strengthen our relationships, sharpen our decision-making, and help us feel more grounded and resilient every day.
Learn more about why emotional regulation matters and its benefits HERE.
Explore Emotional Regulation Strategies
Different strategies work better for different people and situations. Everyone’s needs are unique, and what works in one moment might not be the best fit for another. That’s why it’s important to explore and experiment with various techniques to find what resonates with you and what will work best for each situation.
Explore by Category:
MINDFULNESS
JOURNALING
TRANSFORM YOUR THOUGHTS
PUT YOURSELF FIRST
MOVEMENT
CONNECT WITH OTHERS
Explore by Feeling:
HIGH-ENERGY AGREEABLE FEELINGS
HIGH-ENERGY TROUBLESOME FEELINGS
LOW-ENERGY AGREEABLE FEELINGS
LOW-ENERGY TROUBLESOME FEELINGS
Learn more about the four feelings quadrants HERE.
MINDFULNESS STRATEGIES
Mindfulness emotional regulation strategies help you stay present with your emotions in a calm, non-judgmental way. By observing your feelings without impulsive reactions, you create space for clarity, resilience, and balanced decision-making.
These practices help us:
Calm both body and mind, creating space for peace amid chaos.
Ground in the present and let us fully experience the moment instead of getting lost in what’s next.
Enhance emotional awareness, allowing us to tune into our feelings with clarity.
Observe our thoughts and emotions without judgment, creating freedom from self-criticism.
Improve focus and concentration, sharpening our mind amid distractions.
Reduce reactivity, helping us respond with intention rather than impulse.
Build resilience to stress and anxiety, making it easier to navigate life’s challenges.
Use Mindfulness strategies when:
You need to calm your nervous system: Mindfulness practices help you create space for peace, allowing you to restore a sense of calm amidst chaos.
You want to ground in the present aka stop ruminating about the past or worrying about the future: Mindfulness encourages you to fully experience the moment, preventing your mind from getting lost in future worries.
When you need to reduce the intensity of an emotion: Mindfulness helps you tune into your feelings with clarity, fostering a deeper understanding of your emotional state.
You catch yourself being overly self-critical or judging yourself harshly. Mindfulness allows you to observe your internal experience with compassion and without judgment, freeing you from self-criticism.
When you need to improve focus and concentration: Mindfulness sharpens your mind, helping you stay focused amidst distractions and maintain clarity.
When you want to reduce stress and anxiety: Mindfulness practices help you navigate challenges more easily, building emotional resilience over time.
When you're feeling overwhelmed: Mindfulness brings you back to the present moment, helping reduce the rush of overwhelming thoughts.
You want to be less reactive (and better regulate your emotions): Mindfulness gives you space to pause and respond to emotional triggers thoughtfully, rather than reacting impulsively.
When you want to cultivate patience: Mindfulness teaches you to slow down and practice patience, both with yourself and others.
You want to fully immerse yourself in and extend an uplifting feeling.: Mindfulness helps you fully embrace and appreciate positive emotions, allowing you to deepen your connection to them and prolong their benefits.
When you seek clarity in decision-making: Mindfulness clears mental clutter, providing fresh perspective and clarity when making tough decisions.
You want to connect deeply with your feelings and yourself.
Practices:
MINDFUL BREATHING - Ground yourself in the present moment, reduce stress and anxiety, and create space for clarity and calm amidst life's challenges.
SAVORING -Fully immerse yourself in an emotion fostering an appreciation and creating lasting memories that build resilience.
SELF-COMPASSION MEDITATION Let go of judgment and create a kinder relationship with yourself by encouraging acceptance
A MINDFUL NATURE WALK: A powerful way to find calm, reset, and reconnect with yourself.
5-4-3-2-1 GROUNDING TECHNIQUE: Shift your focus from overwhelming or distressing emotions to the present moment, grounding you in your senses and promoting a sense of calm and control.
JOURNALING STRATEGIES
Journaling is a powerful emotional regulation strategy that provides a safe space to explore and process emotions, creating room for clarity and deeper understanding. By putting pen to paper, we reduce stress, gain perspective, and make more intentional decisions.
Journaling practices help us:
Process and release emotions
Increase self-awareness and create space for personal insight.
Find clarity and see challenges in new ways
Lower cortisol levels, acting as a release valve for stress and anxiety.
Enhance emotional awareness, allowing us to identify patterns and triggers, fostering personal growth.
Use Journaling practices when:
You feel overwhelmed by emotions like anxiety, loss, stress, or anger: Journaling helps process and release heavy emotions, giving you a safe space to work through them.
You notice recurring emotional triggers or patterns in your behavior that are holding you back: Journaling can increase self-awareness, helping you identify patterns and break free from what's holding you back.
Your mind feels cluttered with thoughts or worries, impacting your decision-making and problem-solving: Journaling creates clarity by clearing mental clutter, so you can make thoughtful decisions with more focus.
You feel uncertain or stuck: Journaling can help you explore feelings of uncertainty, offering clarity and insight to guide your next steps.
You want to set intentions or goals: Journaling helps you align your emotions with your desired actions, turning your goals into meaningful, actionable steps.
You need to celebrate yourself: Journaling provides an opportunity to acknowledge your wins—big or small—boosting your self-worth and pride.
You seek distance from your emotions: Journaling allows you to create space between yourself and your feelings, helping you observe without being overwhelmed.
When you’re looking for a way to understand complex feelings: Journaling provides a tool for exploring emotions and clarifying what you truly want or need.
When you want to capture and savor the good moments: Journaling offers a chance to reflect on happy experiences, solidifying positive memories that lift you up.
When you’re looking for a pick-me-up: Journaling serves as a reminder of your strength, resilience, and past successes, helping you reconnect with your inner power.
When you're processing a major life change: Journaling can help navigate big transitions or challenges by giving you a safe space to express your feelings.
When you need to work through tough decisions: Journaling can help clarify options and priorities, making it easier to make thoughtful, informed choices.
When you want to tap into creativity: Sometimes, journaling can be a tool for brainstorming and creative thinking, offering an outlet for new ideas.
Practices include:
CELEBRATE YOURSELF: Acknowledge yourself and all your accomplishments - big and small to fuel your motivation and inspire yourself to achieve even greater things.
GRATITUDE JOURNALING: Cultivate a positive mindset, reduce stress, and enhance emotional resilience by focusing on the good in your life, even amidst challenges
PROMPTS FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING YOUR FEELINGS: Prompts to help you fully understand your feelings and uncover insights that make it easier to navigate challenges and live with greater intention.
FEELINGS PROMPTS: Prompts designed to help you explore specific emotions and gain deeper insight into yourself.
SAVORING THE EMOTION: Engage with your emotions deeply, helping to solidify the positive experiences in your memory and enhance your overall emotional well-being
Journaling Tips:
Tailor Your Practice to You: Journaling is a deeply personal practice, so don’t be afraid to adjust prompts or methods to suit your own needs and preferences.
Get Curious: Approach journaling with an open mind and a genuine desire to understand your emotions. The more curious you are, the more you’ll uncover about what’s really going on beneath the surface.
Build a Consistent Practice: Stick with journaling regularly, and you’ll start to notice patterns and triggers more easily. Over time, this habit will help you gain deeper self-awareness, allowing you to process tough emotions quicker, and amplify the positive ones.
Not into writing? Record it: If writing isn’t your thing, no worries. You can achieve the same results by talking through your thoughts and recording them. Whatever method helps you connect with your feelings is the right one.
TRANSFORM YOUR THOUGHTS
Transform Your Thoughts strategies give you the tools to identify, reframe, and challenge the patterns that fuel emotional distress. These strategies create a safe space to shift your mindset and approach challenges with a clearer perspective and confidence.
Transform Your Thoughts practices help us:
Shift our perspective on challenges, turning obstacles into opportunities for growth.
Improve decision-making: By rethinking negative thoughts and emotions, we can make decisions from a more balanced and thoughtful place, avoiding impulsive reactions driven by emotion.
Enhance communication: Emotional regulation allows us to respond to others with more empathy and clarity, improving the quality of our relationships.
Increase self-awareness: By examining our emotions and thoughts, we become more aware of patterns that may be influencing our behavior, which can lead to deeper personal growth.
Reduce Reactivity: Thought reframing helps prevent extreme emotional responses, allowing us to stay centered even in challenging situations.
Support long-term well-being: By regulating our emotions, we reduce stress, improve mental health, and build a more positive relationship with ourselves.
Restore energy: Replace limiting beliefs with empowering ones, freeing up energy to focus on what truly matters.
Reduce negative self-talk: Foster more compassion and understanding, allowing us to approach ourselves and others with kindness.
Strengthen resilience: Reframe setbacks as stepping stones, not failures, and use challenges as opportunities for growth.
Build confidence: Focus on our strengths and past achievements, reminding ourselves of what we’ve already overcome.
Encourage a positive outlook: Shift focus to see solutions rather than problems, helping us stay hopeful and proactive.
Cultivate a growth mindset: Make it easier to embrace change and adapt, viewing life’s challenges as part of the learning process.
Use Transform Your Thoughts practices when:
You’re stuck in negative thinking and need to shift your perspective to regain clarity.
You’re feeling hopeless, overwhelmed, or anxious and need to regain your sense of calm.
You’re facing a challenge and need to reframe it as an opportunity to learn and grow.
Self-doubt is creeping in, and you need to remind yourself of your strength and resilience.
You’re overwhelmed by problems and need to focus on solutions, instead of getting lost in difficulties.
You find yourself thinking in absolutes (e.g., "I can never do this") and need to replace those thoughts with more balanced, empowering ones.
You need to detach from fear-based thinking and embrace a mindset of possibility.
You’re facing a setback and need to reframe it as part of the learning process, not a failure.
You want to strengthen your resilience and shift from frustration to forward momentum.
You’re finding it hard to embrace change and need to cultivate a growth mindset.
Practices include:
POSITIVE SELF-TALK: Shift your inner dialogue from criticism to compassion.
CHANGE TRIANGLE: A tool for navigating emotions in real-time guiding you from distress to greater peace and understanding.
BEST SELF VISUALIZATION/MENTAL RHEARSAL
THOUGHT REFRAMING
META MOMENT
ANOTHER’S PERSPECTIVE (Self-Distancing )
TRAVEL IN TIME (Temporal Distancing)
GROWTH MINDSET
RAGE VISUALIZATION
MOVEMENT
Movement is a powerful emotional regulation strategy because it helps release tension, improve your mood, and clear your mind. By incorporating movement into your routine, you reduce stress, build resilience, and cultivate a greater sense of clarity and well-being.
Movement practices help us:
Use Movement practices when:
Practices include:
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
SHAKE IT OUT
PUT YOURSELF FIRST
Self-care strategies are essential emotional regulation tools because they help us recharge, process emotions, and restore our energy. By making time for self-care, we strengthen our emotional resilience, reduce stress, and maintain a calmer, clearer mindset to handle life’s ups and down
Self-care practices help us:
Soothe and relax the body, promoting a sense of calm and well-being.
Create space for mental clarity by giving our mind the rest it needs to recharge.
Reconnect with ourselves, fostering self-compassion and deep care.
Prevent burnout by ensuring we’re consistently refilling our emotional reserves.
Strengthen our ability to cope with stress, helping us approach challenges with more ease.
Improve our energy levels, so we can engage in life with more vitality and focus.
Enhance our sense of worth and value, reinforcing that we deserve time and care.
Use Self-Care practices when:
You’re feeling overwhelm and need to step back and give yourself a break.
Self-care strategies allow us to process our emotions, recharge and replenish our energy, so we can maintain a healthy emotional state.
You need to honor your boundaries and protect your well-being from external demands.
Your mind is running non-stop, and you need space to quiet the noise and center yourself.
You’re feeling disconnected from your body or emotions and need to reconnect.
You’re pushing through fatigue or stress, and it’s time to slow down and prioritize rest.
You find yourself neglecting your own needs and need a reminder to take care of yourself first.
Practices include:
FOLLOW YOUR CURIOSITY
SPEND TIME IN NATURE
ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
DO WHAT YOU LOVE
CONNECTING TO OTHERS
Connecting To Others is a vital emotional regulation strategy as it fosters support, belonging, and shared positivity. By nurturing relationships and showing kindness, you not only uplift others but also enhance your emotional well-being, reducing stress and promoting feelings of peace and contentment.
Connect To Others practices help us:
Foster deeper relationships with ourselves and others, creating bonds rooted in empathy and understanding.
Encourage emotional expression, allowing us to share our feelings in a safe and supportive way.
Create a sense of belonging, reminding us that we are part of a greater community.
Increase emotional resilience, as connection offers support during times of stress or difficulty.
Strengthen our sense of purpose and meaning through shared experiences and connections.
Promote empathy and understanding, enriching our relationships and our own emotional intelligence.
Cultivate compassion, helping us be more patient and kind toward ourselves and others.
Use Connect practices when:
You’re feeling isolated or disconnected and need to strengthen your support network.
You’re feeling helpless or lost
You want to foster deeper, more authentic connections with those around you.
You’re experiencing stress or anxiety and need a sense of community to help you feel grounded.
You’re craving emotional support and need to reach out for connection rather than going it alone.
You’re looking for a sense of belonging, reminding yourself that you’re not alone in your struggles or triumphs.