Wellness Calendar: Monday 5 February

Learning to self-regulate

Here are a few definitions and terms to get us into this swing of this topic…

Regulate: control, maintain, balance, manage.
Dysregulated: an inability to control our emotions or our responses to these emotions.
Self-regulate: being in control of yourself, without anyone else needing to intervene.
Somatic: relating to the body.
Somatic therapy: helping to connect the body and the mind in order to overcome distress and trauma.
Nervous system: the part of us that sends internal messages across the body and helps to determine what course of action we take in response to stimulus.

If you sometimes feel out of control, you might benefit from learning to calm your nervous system by undertaking some basic somatic exercises.

One such intervention is simply to place the palm of your hand on one side of your face for a few seconds. Or you might want to place both palms on each side for double the effect.

Another exercise is to give yourself a hug, working out tentatively how you might do this and with how much pressure.

There’s a whole world of literature and activities that can help us to improve our self-regulation. If you want to know more, look up EFT/body tapping. Guided imagery. Havening. EMDR. Aromatherapy. NLP. Focusing. Somatic experiencing.