The emotional world of a person - the impact of emotions on life, methods of self-regulation

Human feelings and emotions

A person’s internal experiences are divided into affects, emotional moods, and feelings. What is their difference?

Affects are short-term outbursts of emotions (anger, fear, despair). Such processes have a strong impact on the functioning of internal organs, especially the cardiovascular system. Affects manifest themselves in a specific situation and last only a short period of time.

Affects can leave deep marks on the mind, so people are advised to change their environment to improve their condition. A person can rarely influence the cause of the feeling of affect; it is an involuntary reaction of the nervous system.

Emotional moods are a state of lower intensity than affects, but longer lasting. They are associated with the highest human needs. These states can relate to both the present and the future, and can influence actions that have not yet been committed.

Feelings are distinguished by the stability of processes, they allow you to make your attitude towards life constant, and they include the most important regulatory function. It is interesting that feelings can come into conflict with affects, but they usually win. True love is stronger than temporary resentment. So the mother, even scolding the child, continues to love him.

True and lasting feelings fill life with meaning and help in achieving high goals and peaks in life.

It is known that a large number of negative emotions causes a state of stress, which is harmful on a physical and mental level. Conditions of constant conflicts and a series of stresses are considered dangerous; they lead to neuroses, sleep disorders, psychoses, and depressive states. This is why emotional self-regulation is important; strong emotions harm a person.

At the physical level, stress leads to stomach diseases, ulcers, hormonal imbalances, asthma attacks, arrhythmias, increased injuries, and the development of harmful addictions. In addition, the emotional state of parents affects the health of future generations.

Tension and stress are caused by the following factors:

• Acceleration of the pace of life;
• Information overload;
• Urbanization;
• Inactivity.

Technological progress has positive and negative sides. Advances in technology make life easier, but they also cause harm to health, for example, an excessive passion for computers leads to a lack of outdoor games, which previously had a lot of emphasis. Now they are trying to restore a healthy lifestyle; there is a fashion for gyms and healthy eating. However, it is worth remembering that simple food and simple movement are useful - running, physical labor.

Of course, a state of stress can also be the cause of personal troubles or be caused by professional stress and worries. Representatives of the following professions are most susceptible to stress loads: miners, police officers, journalists, builders, doctors (especially dentists), actors, politicians, drivers, school teachers. The work of employees of libraries and museums is considered the most relaxed.

The main danger of stress is that in this state, free radicals are formed in cells, which can even lead to the growth of cancer or the proliferation of bacteria and viruses, and the body weakens. Smoking also stimulates the growth of radicals, so it is not an effective way to combat stress.

It is important to find your own ways of emotional self-regulation and interruption of emotional stress. They can be simple: communication with a child, a cat, a walk, contemplation of nature, the main thing is to switch gears. Let's move on to consider psychological techniques.

Emotional self-regulation: ways

To determine a method of dealing with emotional overload, it is important to understand the main source of stress.

These may be the following factors:

• Lack of time;
• Uncertainty about the future;
• Feelings of loneliness, isolation, abandonment;
• Lack of self-confidence.

Psychologists have developed a system of emotional self-regulation. What do we mean by this concept?

Emotional self-regulation is the ability to perceive life emotionally, but flexibly and within the limits of social norms, to control and regulate the internal state and reactions; the ability not to succumb to negative emotions, to remain calm and reasonable in any situation, even in the presence of loss of control, fear, and panic in others.

Tips to help relieve stress

1. Learn to understand what is most important to you in life and set global and strategic goals. Strive to achieve your results, not only in the professional sphere. Family and self-development are excellent sources of inspiration. And moving forward increases faith in your own goals.
2. In times of despair and feelings of loneliness, try not to isolate yourself , call a close friend, it is always easier to logically assess the problem from the outside, and simply communicating will reduce the level of negative emotions. Often communication helps better than sedatives. Emotional self-regulation is aimed at restoring one’s state of mind through one’s own efforts, but if there is a lack of strength or despair, one can resort to the help of friends and psychologists.
3. Strive to eliminate the source of stress - analyze the cause, think about how to resolve the issue, reduce emotional stress, try to restore a peaceful atmosphere in the family, at work, or ignore people who cannot be corrected. Nothing can hurt a person until he allows it himself.
4. Find ways to use your downtime —travelling, waiting. You can listen to or read books, plunge into the world of music by connecting a player, or learn foreign languages. Again, this is a time management tool to get more done. You can mentally think about your plans for the evening, where to go, who to meet.
5. In the interior, it is better to use pastel colors to restore and relax the nervous system; bright red and yellow colors promote excitement and increase aggressiveness.
6. Emotional self-regulation begins with awareness of worries and experiences. Don’t accumulate stress in your soul , discuss what’s troubling you with your loved ones in calm tones, it’s easier to resolve pressing issues together. Often, in order to find a way out, you need to formulate a problem, and by voicing it, we begin to think specifically and not get lost in thoughts.
7. Treat your loved ones with understanding , listen carefully, try to understand feelings and emotions, everyone needs such support.
8. The issue of time shortage can be solved by mastering the techniques of planning your time, making a list of tasks and distributing time in order of priority. The main thing is to take control of your life , everything will work out.
9. A great way to relieve stress is through laughter therapy , reading jokes, listening to recordings of comedians, or just joking with friends. They say that a minute of laughter prolongs life by 1 hour, and that joy and improved mood improve immunity, promote health and a positive attitude towards life. This means they provide assistance in solving all problems.
10. Music is also a healer of souls ; there is information that the sounds of nature and classical music help to calm, normalize heart function, and restore mental balance in the body. And Mozart’s compositions, moreover, improve memory and mental abilities. It is worth finding time to listen to pleasant and relaxing music. Emotional self-regulation with the help of music is very effective and pleasant; you can also use independent singing to improve your mood and get away from negative emotions.
11. Physical exercise is undoubtedly also the key to improving health and relieving stress; the body switches to doing exercises, forgetting about sorrows and adversities. Therefore, swimming, fitness, gym or outdoor exercises always help to recharge with vivacity and energy.
12. A person needs activity for a normal life; switching from one activity to another works better than passive rest. At the same time, try to remember and concentrate on successes and achievements in life, this will help overcome periods of failure that everyone encounters in life.
13. It is important to remember: aggressiveness, irritability, and excessive anxiety harm, first of all, the person himself, as does envy and settling scores. It’s better to learn to treat people calmly and find compromises. We remember that our attitude towards people causes a response. Therefore, goodwill and understanding contribute to successful communication.

Emotional self-regulation is necessary for everyone!

The formation of emotional self-regulation is necessary for both adults and adolescents, who often experience mood swings and emotions. In addition to the methods described, there are also deeper psychological technologies associated with the control and transformation of thoughts. These include:

1. Meditation - muscle relaxation, deep breathing, normalization of a calm state due to relaxation of the body and the functioning of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. There is an expression - “cool your thoughts”, that is, distract yourself, calmly switch to something, you can meditate.
2. Self-hypnosis is a technique of instilling calm, relaxation, and a positive attitude towards life and people; it is useful to use in the morning before getting out of bed. It is important to think about the future day, believe in your strength, success, and be calm in resolving any issues. You can return to self-hypnosis throughout the day.
3. Internal transformation of feelings - you need to understand what is happening - I feel fear, anger, resentment, convince yourself of the uselessness of these emotions. Say “I don’t need these emotions at all.” Next, you should switch your attention, think about something good, perform breathing exercises, calming the body and mind. The next point is self-order: I perceive the situation logically, with my mind, and not with my feelings. Now look at the situation from the outside, evaluate it critically, imagine that everything is not so bad, and the offender is just a small figure, an unhappy person himself, probably. If there is a situation, then there is always a solution, the main thing is: turn off emotions, think about pleasant things, and, breathing deeply, turn on rational thinking. Emotionally strong-willed self-regulation is the key to success in many areas of activity and in personal communication.
4. Using a relaxation mask - first you need to learn how to do a facial massage, relaxing the muscles, later mentally imagine this state of a calm face when you do a massage, know how to maintain a calm facial expression in any situation, this is very useful, it simplifies negotiations and disputes. The one who does not lose emotional balance wins. Screaming is a defensive reaction; a person has lost control and cannot operate with calm arguments. Emotional self-regulation allows you to save face and look decent in any difficult situation.
5. Transformation of mood - when a bad mood occurs, caused by life's troubles and negative emotions, it is useful to use the following scheme. First you need to control your condition , say mentally “stop!”, stop the flow of negative thoughts, this is unproductive, try to mentally reduce the problem. Then think about the good, relax (breathing, self-massage, relaxation mask), go into a neutral state. Only after this , improve your mood by thinking about pleasant things , tuning into a positive wave, mentally humming a cheerful melody, and smile to help yourself.
6. It is necessary to develop internal defense , a reaction to negative emotions, this should be at the level of life position. Only a person himself can protect himself from the effects of negative emotions and experiences; for this, internal sensors must be triggered that do not allow one to remain depressed for a long time, reminding one of the need to transform emotions and mood. After all, it is not people and life circumstances that cause harm, but the person himself destroys himself from the inside with unnecessary experiences.

Self-regulation of emotional states is very important; it is necessary to control your mental health, as well as your physical one, and negative thoughts and feelings are harbingers of poor health. It is better to get rid of them at an early stage of their development than to reap the fruits of a depressive state.

There are different methods of self-regulation and relieving emotional stress; the article examined the main methods of relieving emotional stress. We wish you to always be in a good mood and quickly cope with emotions!

Exercises

Although self-regulation has different goals and tasks, it can be developed through regular practice. A systemic-functional approach to mastering the method of self-regulation helps develop awareness and stress resistance.

The most common exercises that will help calm your nerves and concentrate on the task:

In psychology, self-regulation is a universal way to improve the quality of life. It helps to cope with a wide range of problems, learn to regulate one’s own well-being and increase stress resistance - personal qualities that make every person stronger.