Last time, #StayOkayHK shared with everyone that being aware of our emotions is the first step in emotional regulation. Awaring our emotions helps us to effectively manage and regulate them, thus reducing the impact of negative emotions on our lives.

Today, #StayOkayHK will share what is "healthy emotion regulation", allowing everyone to gain a better understanding of emotional regulation.

1. Aware of Emotions
Accurately aware of the emotions and emotional patterns is the first step in emotional regulation. (For more details, please refer to the post “Emotional Awareness”)

2. Accept your Emotions
Regardless of whether the emotions are positive or negative, we should accept our feelings in a non-judgmental manner. Understanding emotions are neither good nor bad but a normal human emotional response helps us face and accept our emotions.

3. Appropriately Managing Emotion
Expressing and managing emotions in healthy and appropriate ways, such as exercising, meditating, or some relaxation practices.

On the other hand, unhealthy emotional regulation strategies include but not limited to:

• Believing we cannot influence how we feel
• Avoiding experiencing of negative or intense emotions
• Using unhealthy methods to cope with emotions
• Blaming ourselves or others for our feelings

Everyone’s emotional responses and regulation strategies are different, so it's important to try and find out which work for you. By using appropriate and healthy emotional regulation strategies, we can effectively manage our emotions, which helps us face challenges and maintain good mental health.