The Importance of Emotional Regulation
Emotional regulation is defined as the ability to acknowledge, control, and respond to one’s emotions. Which does not necessarily mean repressing their feelings but instead developing a healthy relationship with them. Aiding teenagers and children understand how to use these skills is crucial, it allows them to establish healthy relationships with their peers and maneuver through different challenges with a larger amount of self-confidence. As a child grows, these skills can also assist them with refining their communication, empathy, and decision-making skills.
Practical Techniques For Regulating Emotions
Understanding and finding strategies that help regulate emotions can be especially difficult for teenagers and children, though the effectiveness of these strategies can differ from child to child a few commonly helpful ones include:
- Breathing exercises: Encouraging a child or teenager to take deep breathes when feeling emotionally overwhelmed can help by activating their parasympathetic nervous system which allows the body to enter a state of ‘relaxation’(slowing down their heart and breathing rates as well as decreasing their blood pressure).
- Positive Affirmations: Affirmations can aid an individual by letting them reassure themself of their emotions, affirmations often take quite a bit of practice but have been shown to be extremely effective in young children by forming new neural pathways.
- Identifying the physical symptoms: Often when a child/teenager has an emotional outburst, there can be other underlying feelings including being fatigued or hungry; these underlying factors can be a major component of the extent of their reaction. Identifying one of the main issues can aid in improving their emotional responses.
- Personal hobbies: Allowing them to spend time working on a hobby they enjoy can give them their own time to understand and acknowledge what they are feeling.
- Physical activity: Physical activity such as going on a walk, jogging, or doing yoga can aid in calming the child/teenager down by releasing endorphins
- The identification of their own emotions: Often, younger children struggle with identifying or labeling their emotions, guiding them to understand what they are feeling can alleviate feelings of anxiety.
- Having a set routine: Having a set routine has been seen to be a crucial component of reducing stress and managing emotions.
How Emotional Regulation Is Beneficial In Terms Of Social Situations
In regard to the various social situations and relationships, an individual might have, their skills of emotional regulation can play an extremely large role. While children and teenagers encounter different social situations, their ability of managing their emotions can contribute to the quality of the social connections they make as well as their experiences. It is crucial to give them the techniques to navigate through challenges such as disagreements with their peers. By being able to recognize and control their emotions, and respond cautiously teenagers/children can develop healthy relationships.
The Role of Parents/Educators
Parents have a very influential role in a child/teenager’s ability to regulate their emotions, creating an environment in which they feel comfortable enough to express their emotions and feel supported basis for aiding your child in developing emotional regulation skills. A few parental techniques that have been identified to help children regulate their emotions include,
- Replying to their child’s emotional response by acknowledging or helping them process their emotions.
- Displaying emotional regulation or using different strategies such as breathing exercises.
- Assisting them in understanding which emotional regulation strategy works the best for them and how they can make use of it.
- Sharing your own experiences in a constructive manner.
One of the key factors to remember is to be patient and consistent as understanding to regulate and process one’s emotions is a very complex process. Developing a secure relationship with the child/teenager first is fundamental since as seen by various researchers, kids tend to learn better from people they trust.
