How to Better Regulate Your Emotions | Dr. Marc Brackett

Before diving into specific techniques, it's crucial to examine your mindset about emotions themselves. Many people have complicated relationships with different emotions based on their upbringing and experiences. For instance, some people automatically assume anxiety is bad and try to eliminate it entirely. But anxiety often signals that something is important to you - it's your brain's way of saying there's perceived uncertainty around something you care about.The key insight is that there are no inherently bad emotions. It's what we do with our emotions that makes them helpful or harmful. Anger isn't bad - it signals perceived injustice. Sadness isn't bad - it often reflects loss or disappointment about something meaningful. The problem arises when we automatically label emotions as negative and try to suppress them, which typically leads to dysregulation.This mindset shift is particularly important for understanding that emotion regulation isn't about checking in with your feelings constantly throughout the day. That would be exhausting and counterproductive. Most of the time, emotions operate in the background. They become important when there's a shift in your environment or relationships - when something activates you and you need to make a choice about how to respond.