Self-esteem, positivity, and emotional resilience are foundational behavioral attributes for good psychological health. Like other behaviors, these key habits can be developed and improved with practice. They all depend upon a critical skill, emotional self-regulation.

Unfortunately, most of us have had little if any formal education on emotions or how to regulate them. placing us at a serious disadvantage when it comes to promoting our own mental health. Three questions offer insight into the concept of emotional self-regulation: 1) What are emotions?  2) Where do emotions come from?, and 3) How do we improve them?

I typically ask my clients these questions when we begin work together.  Very few (read as virtually none) have satisfactory answers.  How can they rely on themselves to stay well emotionally over time without this knowledge?  How can they correctly fix their sagging emotions?   How can they fix poor self-worth? How do they correctly manage anxiety? By correctly I mean behaviorally. Please reflect on your answers to the three questions. I will discuss the answers in an a future  post.