Emotion Regulation is the module in which we learn to understand how our emotions work, and the skills we need to manage our emotions instead of being managed by them, to reduce how vulnerable we are to negative emotions, and to build positive emotional experiences.
Perhaps more than in the other three modules, the skills in Emotion Regulation build on each other. As we learn each little piece and practice it, we are putting another building block in the structure of our own Emotion Regulation, learning little by little how to handle negative emotions and how to build positive ones.
As you learn each new skill or awareness in your life, congratulate yourself. You are doing probably the hardest work you will ever do, and the outcome of all the struggle and practice will be worth it. Things will get very much easier, and your emotional life will be more comfortable.
The first thing to realize is that no one is telling us that our negative emotions are bad, or not important, or to get rid of them. Everyone has negative emotions. It is part of life. Those of us who have been through painful or traumatizing experiences may have very intense negative emotions. We want to validate these emotions, have them recognized and believed, accept them as real and meaningful.
What the module on Emotion Regulation intends to teach us is how to understand our emotions and how they get that way, how we are or become more vulnerable to those emotions and what we can do about it, and some techniques for building positive emotions into our lives.
