Emotions and Self-Care
How Do My Emotions Tell How Well I Am Caring For Myself?
A key indicator of how well you are caring for yourself is reflecting on day-to-day emotions and how you react to situations.
Emotional regulation is your reaction to a situation: “the kinds of emotions that individuals have, the timing of experiencing their emotions, and how they experience and express these emotions” (Katana et al., 2018, p 2).
- What are examples of emotional regulation?
- Positive emotional regulation includes reacting to a situation in a way that matches the situation that is occurring. You can process the situation, deal with the situation, and able to move forward without concentrating on the situation that occurred.
- For example: Your loved one accidentally knocked over their drink while eating. You take a deep breath and reassure them that it was just an accident. You get a towel and clean up the spill and then return to the conversation you were having with your loved one.
- Negative emotional regulation is defined as reacting to a situation in a way that does not match the situation. Often it can be reacting with emotions that are larger or smaller than what the situation requires. Additionally, it can be difficult to move on from the situation and focus on other aspects of day-to-day life.
- For example: Your loved one accidentally knocked over their drink while eating. You sigh and express to your loved one that they are so clumsy and that they need to be more careful. You get a towel and clean up the mess, but you no longer talk to your loved one during the meal because you are frustrated with them.
It is important to acknowledge when your reactions/emotions to a situation are not your typical response.
- When you notice that you are having an over or under-reaction to a situation, it may be indicating that your needs are currently not being met and that you need to focus on self-care.
How Can I Improve My Emotional Regulation?
When you feel that your needs are being met you are better prepared to react and handle daily situations. So, you need to meet your needs through self-care.
Self-care occurs when you participate in activities/occupations that improve your feelings of well-being, quality of life, and mental/physical health status.
You can practice self-care by incorporating the following activities into your daily routine:
- Exercise: any activity that is above our typical activity within our home. This does not have to be intensive but rather focus on activities that make you feel good during and after.
- Many individuals enjoy walking as it allows them to have connections outside and feel that it gives them a good workout.
- Health Management: these are activities that you need to complete to maintain your health.
- Eating
- Sleeping
- Bathing
- Taking medication
- Stress Management: this can be met through participating in activities that you identify as stress reducers. Important: these activities should have a neutral or positive effect on your physical and mental health.
- Reading
- Playing games
- Watching movies/TV
- Social Relations: identifying ways to interact with others and making those connections.
- Talking on the phone
- Communicating via social media
- Having individuals over to your home
- Nutrition: eating meals that include all the elements of the food groups.
- Fruits
- Grains
- Vegetables
- Protein
- Dairy
Consider completing a self-care journey to hold yourself accountable. Below is linked a free printable journal page where you can fill in the self-care tasks that you need reminders to complete and mark off the days that you were able to complete those tasks throughout the month.
References:
Katana, M., Röcke, C., Spain, S. M., & Allemand, M. (2019). Emotion regulation, subjective well-being, and perceived stress in daily life of geriatric nurses. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1097–1097. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01097
Dionne-Odom, J., N., Demark-Wahnefried, W., Taylor, R. A., Rocque, G. B., Azuero, A., Acemgil, A., Martin, M. Y., Astin, M., Ejem, D., Kvale, E., Heaton, K., Pisu, M., Partridge, E. E., & Bakitas, M. A. (2017). The self-care practices of family caregivers of persons with poor prognosis cancer: Differences by varying levels of caregiver well-being and preparedness. Supportive Care in Cancer, 25(8), 2437–2444. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-017-3650-7
