Brave Mind - Regulating our Emotions
If you read Decembers edition of the bsporty magazine, then you would have seen our article on understanding our emotions. This month, in January, we are focusing on how we can regulate our emotions.
To briefly recap, emotions are useful to us because they tell us a story about how we are feeling. Researchers currently believe there are six universal emotions that all humans can understand, these are happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, and surprise. Finally, emotions are important because they allow us to communicate our feelings to people in our lives such as our parents, teachers, or friends.
So now you know a little bit more about emotions, let’s look at how you can regulate them. A good place to start, may be to ask, why do we need to regulate emotions? Well in sport, as sport psychologists we work with athletes to help them understand and regulate their emotions so they can perform better and be healthy and happy human beings!
As we have mentioned before, emotions give us information about how we are feeling, and it is normal and healthy to experience a whole range of emotions in our day to day lives. Sometimes, it can be useful to regulate our emotions as they can leave us feeling a little overwhelmed, emotions can be intense!
A good place to start is with our breathing, our breath is linked to the way that we feel. Have you ever stopped to notice your breath before? Perhaps take a moment now, with a friend, parent, teacher, or even on your own. Notice the physical sensations of your breath, what do you feel? You may feel it in your belly! You may feel it in your chest!
A great breathing exercise we like to use, is called square breathing. It is simple to do, and not only does it help you to control your breathing, but it can also help you to regain some control over your emotions, by making you more relaxed. The whole aim of square breathing is to draw an imaginary square with your breath, just like the instructions in the photo below! Have a go on your own, or with someone else. Let us know if you enjoyed it or not!
Another way that we can regulate our emotions, is through our senses. Our senses help us to perceive the world and can be useful to ground us in the moment to feel calmer. Just take a moment, to think about some of the smells, sights, sounds, feelings, and tastes that make you calm. Now think about your happy place:
Close your eyes and think of somewhere you feel comfortable
Use your senses, what can you see, smell, touch, taste, and hear?
How does this place make you feel? What do you notice in your body?
Take a moment to breathe and relax in your happy place
Hopefully this brief insight to regulating your emotions has been helpful. Here at Brave Mind, we are really excited to continue writing articles for the bsporty magazine in 2023. Let us know what else you’d like to learn about!
Image credit: https://uk.calmerry.com/blog/parenting/teaching-your-kids-square-breathing-while-having-fun
Thank you to the team at Brave Mind for this article.
