Free DBT Emotional Regulation Exercise: Emotional Regulation Your Way
The Ways in Which We Feel
Exercise designed & written Jackie Bristow, MA, RP, CCC.
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Labeling emotions is crucial to emotional regulation, but the way in which we describe our emotions does not have to be in the traditional sense (i.e., using words like sad, mournful, angry) for it to help us feel more in control or stable. Below are some examples.
Take some time to write down how you feel in your own words or use an image to express them.
Sometimes life can feel as though we are sitting alone on the other side of a window, watching the world go by; dark inside where we are and light outside where they are.
Sometimes we feel as still and serene as a beautiful natural lake.
Other times we might feel as though we cannot see the answers to life’s problems, making us feel like it is impossible to see through the trees.
Or sometimes we can feel like we are walking down a dark path alone, with no end in sight.
But at times, life can also feel as though everything is going as it is planned and all the pieces have fallen into place.
And sometimes our emotions can feel vast and maleficent and as though there is something that will crash down upon us, crushing us underneath; like an impending doom.
Sometimes we can feel light, because we feel whole in and of ourselves and sure of our perspective, even with all the imperfect pieces being a part of us.
It feels like the sound of the lowest note on a piano.
