How These Emotional Regulation Techniques Can Save You!

March 28, 2025

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you decide to make a purchase. I only recommend resources that I trust and believe will genuinely help you on your journey toward managing your emotional health.

How These Emotional Regulation Techniques Can Save You!

Introduction: Why Emotional Regulation is the Key to a Balanced Life

Do your emotions feel like a runaway train, overwhelming you with sadness, anger, or anxiety? Maybe you find yourself overreacting to situations, getting stuck in negativity, or completely shutting down. If so, you’re not alone.

Emotional regulation—the ability to understand, manage, and respond to emotions in a healthy way—is one of the most critical life skills. Without it, emotions can take control of your decisions, your relationships, and even your mental health.

Thankfully, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) provides powerful, research-backed techniques to help you:

✅ Manage intense emotions without shutting down or lashing out
✅ Stop negative thought spirals before they take over
✅ Create long-term emotional balance and resilience
✅ Develop self-awareness and self-compassion

In this guide, we’ll explore lifesaving DBT emotional regulation techniques and how you can start applying them today to regain control of your emotions and your life.

👉 Need expert support? Work with a therapist from the comfort of home!
Start Online Therapy Now

Reduce Vulnerability to Negative Emotions with the “ABC PLEASE” Skill

DBT’s ABC PLEASE skill helps you prevent emotional dysregulation before it even starts.

Accumulate Positive Emotions

🌱 Short-Term: Do small, enjoyable activities daily (e.g., listening to music, reading, or taking a walk).
📅 Long-Term: Build a life worth living by setting meaningful goals and taking small steps toward them.

Build Mastery

💪 Engage in activities that make you feel capable and accomplished.
(Example: Learning a new skill, practicing a hobby, or solving a challenging puzzle.)

Cope Ahead

📖 Plan for stressful situations in advance.

Visualize yourself handling the situation calmly.
Practice what you will say and do if strong emotions arise.

PLEASE: Take Care of Your Body to Regulate Your Mind

🍎 P – Physical Health: Treat illnesses, take prescribed meds.
🥗 L – Lifestyle Choices: Reduce caffeine, alcohol, and other mood-altering substances.
😴 E – Eating Habits: Stay nourished with balanced meals.
⛔ A – Avoid Mood-Altering Substances: These can destabilize emotions.
🏃 S – Sleep: Get 7-9 hours of quality sleep.
🚶 E – Exercise: Move your body to boost serotonin and endorphins.

💡 Why It Works:
When you take care of your mind and body, emotions become easier to manage and don’t feel as overwhelming.

👉 Need a structured approach to emotional regulation?
📚 DBT Explained by Suzette Bray

Reduce Emotional Intensity with Opposite Action

Sometimes, emotions urge us to do things that actually make the situation worse. For example:

When sad, you might want to isolate, but this makes depression worse.
When anxious, you might want to avoid something, but this strengthens the fear.

Opposite Action helps you break these cycles by doing the opposite of what your emotion wants you to do.

How to Use Opposite Action:

🔹 Feeling sad? Call a friend instead of isolating.
🔹 Feeling anxious? Face the situation head-on instead of avoiding it.
🔹 Feeling angry? Approach someone calmly instead of reacting aggressively.

💡 Why It Works:
Your actions influence your emotions—by acting against your initial urge, you shift your emotional state and regain control.

👉 Want more DBT skills for managing emotions?
📚 DBT For Dummies by Gillian Galen & Blaise Aguirre

Shift Your Perspective with Check the Facts

Have you ever gotten really upset about something, only to later realize that you misinterpreted the situation?

Our emotions are based on our perceptions, but perceptions are not always reality. Check the Facts helps you challenge distorted thoughts and see situations more clearly.

How to Use Check the Facts:

1️⃣ Identify the emotion: What are you feeling?
2️⃣ Describe the situation objectively: What actually happened (without assumptions or exaggeration)?
3️⃣ Ask yourself:

Is there real evidence to support this thought?
Am I jumping to conclusions?
Is there another way to look at this situation?
4️⃣ Adjust your thinking based on the facts.

💡 Why It Works:
Your thoughts fuel your emotions—by challenging irrational or exaggerated thoughts, you lower emotional intensity and regain clarity.

👉 Want a workbook to help practice emotional regulation?
📚Self-Directed DBT Skills Workbook by Elliot Weiner, PhD, & Kiki Fehling, PhD:

Break Free from Emotional Overwhelm with Wave Skill

Sometimes emotions hit like a tidal wave, making it hard to function. Instead of resisting emotions (which only makes them stronger), Wave Skill teaches you to ride them out without being consumed.

How to Use Wave Skill:

🌊 Imagine your emotion as an ocean wave—it rises, peaks, and eventually fades.
🧘 Observe the emotion without judgment—don’t fight it or suppress it.
💨 Breathe deeply and remind yourself: “This feeling is temporary. I can handle it.”
🔄 Let the emotion pass naturally instead of reacting impulsively.

💡 Why It Works:
Fighting emotions gives them more power—learning to experience them without resistance makes them easier to manage.

Take Control of Your Emotions Today!

Emotions don’t have to control you. By practicing ABC PLEASE, Opposite Action, Check the Facts, and the Wave Skill, you can regulate emotions, reduce suffering, and create a life with more balance and resilience.