Emotional Regulation

The goal of emotion regulation is to reduce emotional suffering. The goal is not to get rid of emotions; emotions have important functions in our lives. Emotion regulation skills help you to change emotions that you (not other people) want to change, or to reduce the intensity of your emotions. Emotion regulation skills can also reduce your vulnerability to becoming extremely or painfully emotional and increase your emotional resilience. Emotion regulation requires use of mindfulness skills, particularly nonjudgmental observation and description of your own current emotions. You have to know what an emotion is and what it does for you before you can effectively regulate it.