Importantly, this window can narrow or enlarge overtime, across contacts, or in response to changing life circumstances and events, including exposure to adversity or enhancement of individual capacities and resources. Similarly, emotional regulation may be easier during particularly low-stress periods of life, or in response to personal growth achieved through good therapy, stable and healthy personal relationships, mindfulness, yoga, time spent outdoors, and more.Įach person has his or her own unique window tolerance. It’s normal to experience day-to-day changes in our capacity to emotionally regulate stressful situations. When we are going through a particularly difficult phase in life – such as the loss of a loved one, a health crisis, a job change, or moving – we may find it temporarily difficult to regulate our emotions even in situations that might have been easily managed a few weeks before. Some researchers believe that individuals with a preoccupied attachment style may be more prone to responding to overwhelming emotional experiences with a hyperarousal response. Practicing using skills and strategies to proactively self-soothe either alone or through emotion-regulating relationships with a parent, partner, therapist, or friend.Growing awareness of when we’re nearing the edge of our range of emotional regulation and.Hyperarousal behaviors like tears, tantrums, and loud emotional expressions can sometimes be negatively considered attention-seeking behavior, but the ability to seek out care amid crisis is actually adaptive! Recovery is never aided through ignoring or demeaning these emotional outbursts. Tears and big emotions, common to hyperarousal, are powerful communication signals that can help a person access care from someone that can help them calm down and move out of a hyperaroused state. Like hypoarousal, hyperarousal is a brain making what it believes is the best attempt to prevent pain. It’s wide and high with lots of wiggle room between “ok,” “kind of ok,” and “very not ok.” The normal arch of a healthy range of emotional regulation looks a little bit like a rainbow. (Emotional states called “hypoarousal” and “hyperarousal,” respectively, by brain researchers.) Healthy brains in optimal circumstances have a big arch that helps us stay present to listen, learn, and grow even when difficult stuff is happening. Our range of emotional regulation refers to how much we can handle emotionally before shutting down or blowing up. Download a copy of this visual teaching tool below. My rainbow of emotional regulation is a social-emotional learning resource that can help teach this concept in the classroom, in counseling sessions, or at home. The ways we tend to respond fall into one of two categories: those of us who get agitated, and those of us who shut down.Įmotional regulation refers to our ability to stay present, engaged, and listen and learn despite challenges. Sometimes, we encounter difficult experiences that take us past the range of our ability to tolerate them. All of us have some resiliency to cope with challenges.
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