Happy & Healthy U: The Monthly Message

MANAGING OUR EMOTIONS By Dr.Diane Kern The Happy and Healthy U approach to managing negative emotions is the A+ Approach .  Acknowledgement and Awareness:   Awareness of ourselves and how we feel is a major step in being able to self-manage or self-regulate. Simply ask yourself, “What am I feeling?” The sooner we are able to recognize that we are experiencing negative emotions and therefore, distress, the easier it is to change and manage such emotions.   Treat your negative emotions as alarm signals.  The purpose of your distressing emotions as alarm signals is to get your attention and alert you to the fact that there is a problem address. Also, identify the things and situations that tend to trigger your negative emotions. Assessment: This is the evaluation step, which has two parts. Assess the basis or cause of the negative emotion by stopping and asking yourself: “What is causing this negative emotion; does this emotion makes sense in light of...