Emotional Regulation and HeartMath
This fall, let’s tap into our emotional wellness and our emotional regulation…
What is emotional regulation? Emotional regulation is our ability to calm ourselves when we are upset or cheer ourselves up when we are feeling down. We can monitor our emotions and experience them and healthily express them.
We utilize emotional regulation skills when we respond to life stressors/life events.
We have to remember, the event itself doesn’t create stress.
It is HOW we respond to the event that affects our body and creates stress, anxiety, hopelessness, etc.
The first half of 2020 has certainly been a myriad of unpleasant events to make most of us hyperaware of our emotional regulation skills. How are you faring with the new normal? What has it been like to respond to changes in the routine for you and your family?
If it has been tough, you are not alone. Whether it’s meant more time at the gym to burn off steam, more relaxing bubble baths at the end of a long week, a brisk walk in the morning, or signing up for that new online yoga class, we all cope with stress and uncertainty in different ways.
Here at ExercisAbilities, one way we help our clients with dealing with stress is through our Heart Math technology. As a HeartMath trained occupational therapist, I can hook up clients with an ear sensor to track their Heart Rate Variability (HRV) right on the computer. HRV is one way to track our heart coherence which can tell us how well our heart is synchronized with our body systems (like respiration rate, blood pressure, etc.) and improved heart coherence is tied to better brain function, improved functional performance, and better emotional resilience/ability to weather life’s storms.
It has been a powerful tool for my clients to guide someone’s mind-body wellness by seeing the ability of someone’s “simple” meditation to change their heart rhythm on their own!
If you are finding you need help in this area to guide your emotional health, please give us a call at ExercisAbilities so we can help you schedule an appointment with occupational therapy!
Maria Serbus, OTR/L