Strong emotions are a part of life, but they can become overwhelming. Thankfully, self-regulation can help to keep them in balance

Emotions and feelings are an essential element of being human. They allow empathy, laughter and tears. How they are felt and experienced is part of the everyday. Tides of happiness, sadness, excitement, fear and boredom can all wash in throughout the course of a week. Sometimes, they might seem overwhelming, at other points, they barely register.

For many, such feelings are kept in check with a simple acknowledgement, while for others, the build-up of emotions can be too much and, alongside fear or anger, comes a mounting anxiety over how they’ll be expressed. Can strong emotions ever be regulated to the degree that they’re always fully under control? Is it wise even to attempt to contain them, or might this be damaging? The answers are as complex as each individual, but there are ways to find the sweet spot between self-expression and self-regulation.

In definition

First, though, it’s helpful to clarify some definitions, namely those terms: feelings and emotions. According to Karla McLaren, author, social science researcher and founder of the Empathy Academy, there are significant differences between the two, which can be expressed like this: ‘An emotion is a physiological experience (or state of awareness) that gives you information about the world, and a feeling is your conscious awareness of the emotion itself.’