Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

  • Home
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
    • About
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Contact

April 12, 2015 By Admin

Mindfulness Training

Mindfulness-Based Emotion Regulation

mindful-happiness_emotional-balance

The following emotional regulation practices (also called emotional balance skills) have been supported by over 2500 years of mindfulness training and current psychological research on human emotions.  These practices/skills are to be practiced before they are needed, and directly applied when they are needed.  Here is the list.

1) Practice noticing and expanding the gap (time/space/energy) between internal emotional impulse and external behavioral activation.

2) Focus on calm, slow, deep breathing when overly aroused emotionally.

3) Be mindfully aware of what (people, places, things, memories, etc.) causes your emotional dysregulation, and experiment with ways to alter your reactions to such triggers.  Note that these conditions are impermanent – they arise and that fall away.

4) Maintain a personal journal about regrettable emotional reactions and behaviors.  When things improve, also write about that in the journal.

5) In the vipassana tradition, work on recognizing (acute awareness) the initial arising of an emotional reactions in your body (sensations), and experiment with ways to alter or stop the parade of madness.

6) Use compassion to become aware of the other person’s increasing emotional suffering, and act accordingly to reduce it.

7) Use the proprioception of facial nerves to alter emotion in your brain by smiling at fear and anger in you.  If the fear is something serious, do what you need to protect yourself.

8) Practice interception skills by becoming more and more aware of sensations in your body that signal emotional reactivity and dysregulation. Take advantage of this early warning system to change your reaction to a more productive response.

9) When you fail to control emotional reactions, do your best to shorten the behavior and verbal activation period.  Apologize quickly and sincerely.

10) Understand the cognitive-behavioral model so you can use such information to improve the moment and your reaction.

11) Practice labelling your emotional content via thoughts, words and actions so you may be able to extend cognitive (pre-frontal) control over reactivity.

12) Increase your desire to be free from emotional suffering, which anger and other afflictive emotions simply increase.

13) Read about the Four Noble Truths, and practice daily meditation, yoga, or exercise to be in touch with your brain, mind, and body.

14) Do not willingly invite anger or emotional reactivity into your human space.  Find a more productive alternative to practice.

15) Do the 4-Ds: drink water, distract, do something different, and delay your response (thoughts, words, actions).

16) Investigate themes in your emotional reactivity.  Isolate the BIG ones, and get help to transform them and your reactions.

17) When experiencing afflictive emotional states, practice opposite action (DBT skill). Try your best to do something in the opposite direction.

18) When feeling emotionally hurt or angry, do your best to LET GO of your hurt ego and self-cherishing and apply a practice or skill immediately.

19) When feeling sorry for yourself or angry about something that is impermanent, practice gratitude review. Thinks of things you have gratitude about.  Really concentrate on them.

20) Follow the wise advice of Thich Nhat Hanh, Chogyam Trungpa, and Pema Chodron by holding your anger as if it was a newborn baby.  Since it is part of your experience, allow your mind to transform it into something that needs to be taken care of with loving kindness and unconditional love.  Know you are suffering!  Be kind to yourself and your emotional reaction.  Do not act on it.

21) Practice loving kindness meditation for yourself and others on a regular basis.

22) If you are very skilled, practice smiling at your fears and inhaling the pain and suffering from others as you exhale your own loving kindness to others.

For more information refer to The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) and Ekman, P. (2008). Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion. New York: MacMillan Audio Books, CD 6.  See also Chodron, P. (2010). Smile at Fear: A Retreat with Pema Chodron. Boston: Shambhala Audio, CDs.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, VermontChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness

CLICK HERE to Order!

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

Filed Under: Breathing, Featured, MIndfulness, MIndfulness Activities, Training Tagged With: DR ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, EMOTIONAL BALANCE, EMOTIONAL REGULATION, MINDFUL HAPPINESS, MINDFULNESS TRAINING

Twitter

Mindful Happiness -Currently in Production

Mindful Happiness Posts

In Times of Uncertainty; Clinical Practice H. Colodro and J. Oliver provide sound advice in their new book, A Guide to Self-Care for Practitioners in Times of Uncertainty. This 2020 New Harbinger publication is loaded with helpful suggestions on surviving, even thriving, in our time of struggle. Their core questions include: What do my clients need most […]

Meditation for Health Improvement It is estimated that between 10 and 15 million Americans participate in some form of regular mindfulness or contemplative practices; secular-based meditation and yoga may be the most common of these practices.  Many others practice tai chi, qi gong, forest-based contemplation, Taoism, etc.  The US National Institute of Health has been […]

Review:  Deepak Chopra’s Idea’s on ” The Future of God” Part 2 of 3 In part 2 of this 3-part series, I will discuss the role played by consciousness in various levels of spirituality.  In the beginning, there was the word.  The word is sometimes associated with pure consciousness, since without consciousness there cannot be […]

Drink a Cup of Tea with Thich Nhat Hanh According to the article “A Perfect Cup of Tea” by Noa Jones, The Great Meditation Master offers this sage advice about the best way to enjoy a great cup of tea. I suppose if you would rather drink coffee, the same suggestions may apply. Recognize that […]

Improving Your Self-Esteem – An Action Contemplation The UCLA Higher Education Research Institute’s surveys and V. Mamgain’s ideas about neoclassical economics of happiness help provide a means to deconstruct improved learning in higher education and also personal happiness in the process. According to the UCLA research surveys, higher education students want more spirituality and personal […]

Deepak Chopra’s Ideas on “The Future of God” – Part 3 of In this third and last post I will discuss Deepak Chopra’s views of the three worlds of human experience: Material, Subtle, and Transcendent.  As usual, I will paraphrase and add my own comments as appropriate.  Belief in god or a higher power has […]

Use of Breathing Techniques – Do a Polyvagal Test First Polyvagal Test The polyvagal theory (S.Porges) and polyvagal functions are complex, highly important, evolutional processes with powerful influences on human survival, overall physical health, and emotion regulation.  The tenth cranial nerve (from scull base to anus) functions in various ways, the most important of which […]

Gurdjieff’s The Fourth Way to Consciousness: Background A core teachings is that there are three ways of being: the fakir (master of the physical body); the monk (master of faith and feeling); and, the yogi (master of mind development).  A key goal is to KNOW yourself at the deepest levels.  To KNOW is to be, […]

Vipassana Meditation – Emptiness One of the great insights from regular, long-term vipassana practice is the experience of emptiness. The actual knowing of it by the experience of it. This is not your typical conceptual emptiness of the West; it is not total void, negative beings, or nihilistic pit, or suffering in endlessness.  It is […]

More on Yoga Nidra Yoga nidra is sometimes called yoga sleep or yoga relaxation. It is a very powerful mindfulness technique that allows one to relax the body and limbic brain area, while holding mental control for deeper relaxation and projective practices without falling asleep. For some it may be like lucid dreaming, but a […]

 A Practice To  Help Prevent Alzheimer Disease Kirtan Kriya meditation is part of the ancient Kundalini yoga tradition.  Current clinical research dealing with prevention of Alzheimer disease supports its use in medical meditation.  As G. Harrison (The Beatles fame) noted: As you move attention beyond yourself, you may find peace of mind is there.  Sanskrit root […]

From The Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation We humans have a unique way of perceiving and processing emotional experiences.  Years ago I developed a formula to understand the perception and  process of emotional experiences: CABS-VAKGO-IS/Rels.  The C stands for cognition; we spend a great deal of time thinking about pretty much everything we […]

About Interoception and It’s Importance Interoception (some may also call it neuroception) is the conscious detection and perception of sensory signals in the body and on the skin. Most often these signals are processed as sensations.  Sensation, as the foundation of emotional experience, is always there in our bodies; however, we are not always fully […]

Attitudes of Gratitude Thoughts and Applications M. J. Ryan presents some interesting practices in the book, Attitudes of Gratitude (1999).  Here are some ideas. Hope you will practice some of them soon. As The 14th Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh suggest, we should always appreciate the preciousness and miracle of human life – our own life no matter what […]

Approaches to Treating Chronic Pain Chronic pain is one of the most common and costly physical conditions in the United States. The following approaches have proven to be somewhat effective in reducing personal suffering from chronic pain. Although some of these can be practiced on your own, it is wise to work with a pain […]

The Failed “War on Drugs” – Let’s Try Treatment On Demand and Fund It The New York based Drug Policy Alliance (drugpolicy.org) and other sources have provided some important information about our failed drug and alcohol policies. Here are a few astounding facts.  The United Stares has about 5% of the world’s population, but it […]

Using Meditation, Yoga and Breathing… You can Anchor your Choice Making A key outcome of serious practice is  that you now reduce auto-pilot reactivity to people, places, things, emotions, sensations, craving, and memories and at the same time notice your mind CAN BE in charge of your brain-body reactions.  Yes, regular daily mindfulness practice allows […]

Forgiveness Meditation Practice – Mindful Happiness – Dr Anthony Quintiliani Sit comfortably in a meditation posture. Allow your breath to remain natural without any intentional modification.  Allow your body to relax, and allow your mind to be open to and to expect forgiveness.  Focus attention on your heart area deep within your soul, and allow […]

Emptiness – Meditation Practice The Brahma-Viharas (higher abodes) include four powerful meditation practices ( Loving Kindness/Maitri or Metta; Compassion/Karuna; Sympathetic Joy/Mudita; and, Equanimity/Upekkha) that involve boundless radiation outwardly all the way into the infinite universe. These boundless or infinite space meditations, working with deep absorption and projecting kindness outwardly, may lead to positive changes. Experienced […]

What is Mindfulness  – The Nature of Mindfulness This is an expanded second post on the nature of mindfulness.  This post will begin with secular understandings, and end with basic spiritual path information.  Generally mindfulness is a wide-ranging process with a special noticing quality.  It focuses the power of attention leading to improved concentration.  Mindfulness […]

Mindful Categories

Mindful Happiness Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Site Map

Copyright © 2023 · Mindful Happiness