{"id":2399,"date":"2023-10-04T07:47:51","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T07:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/?p=2399"},"modified":"2024-10-19T15:14:20","modified_gmt":"2024-10-19T15:14:20","slug":"managing-emotions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/illuminated-text.com\/cb\/managing-emotions\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing Emotions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(image credit<\/a> Cottonbro Studio at Pexels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: not all emotion management is equally advisable)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As discussed on our last page<\/a>, our emotions can be useful. They can guide and inform us in insightful ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As handy as that is, emotions can also be painful, annoying, distracting, or worse. Sometimes we don’t want to listen to our emotions. Sometimes we want to manage them (knowing when to do which takes wisdom: it is part of the art of human living). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMPORTANT CAVEAT: we are not talking about clinical mood disorders in this chapter, just everyday emotions. If you are depressed or anxious or have other serious emotional issues (and many people do at some point in their lives), then the strategies discussed on this page are unlikely to be sufficient. It is advisable to seek professional help; There is absolutely no shame in doing this. <\/pre>\n\n\n\n
What reasons do we have for managing our emotions?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We do this for more or less sophisticated reasons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The simplest reasons are mood repair and mood maintenance. Mood repair is when we feel bad and want to stop. Mood maintenance is when we want to keep our emotions going (be those emotions happy, sad, angry, thoughtful, or celebratory). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes we are very aware that we are using these strategies (“I’m tired and bored, let’s just watch a show”), other times we use them almost without noticing (“I didn’t realise how bored I was untill I got out of there – no wonder I kept running around so much”). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mood repair sounds a lot like coping<\/h5>
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We talked about coping on our page about self-threats and compensation<\/a>. To simplify a little, it described direct and indirect ways of coping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you recall, direct coping addresses whatever is making us feel bad. We try to solve the issue (“let’s make a rota for who feeds the cat so we can stop arguing about it”), or, alternately, to reassure ourselves that it isn’t such a big problem after all (“we’re good friends, it doesn’t matter if we argue sometimes”). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indirect coping is about escaping from our bad feelings. This is what the present page focuses on. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes marketers are the reason why we need mood repair. A server was rude to us, a product failed to help us, etc. These cases are especially interesting to CB, because the marketer can often see which emotion the consumer has (e.g., anger vs. disappointment, vs. regret vs. worry) and so may have a good idea about how to respond best <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
People also sometimes try to manipulate their emotions to help them with a task, though it can take a lot of emotional intelligence to do this well#up. For example, if you want to do something creative you might believe that a positive mood could help you broaden and build. If you have to find all the mistakes in a thousand lines of computer code you might think a slightly negative mood could help sustain your carefulness. You may therefore want to do things to get yourself into the required state of mind.<\/p>\n\n\n
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#down. Due caution: there is limited evidence on whether manipulating emotions can improve task performance. One area that does have a little evidence is on which music helps you write<\/a> (that link is to a reivew that is short, readable, and informative)<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
How do we manage our emotions?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
People do endless things: running ultra marathons, bathing in cold water#up, even calling a friend. It isn’t always easy but we are an inventive species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In consumer behaviour terms there seem to be three broad approaches: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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  1. Consuming emotions<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. “Retail therapy”<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Self-gifts<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n
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    #down . The BBC reports<\/a> that cold water bathing is increasingly popular despite scientific evidence for its benefits being scarce and largely anecdotal. Our personal experience is that cold water is just uncomfortable, but that might just be us<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
    Forget CB, what does psychology know about changing your emotions?<\/h5>
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    It will surprise nobody that psychologists have thought a lot about emotion regulation. They’ve learned that a) there is no magic “make all my problems go away” trick, and b) some tactics people try to manage their emotions work much better than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Here is a list of which ones work and which don’t, according to a meta-analysis <\/span> comparing the results from 306 published articles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Note: The ‘d’ numbers below measure “effect size”. A ‘d’ score close to zero means this tactic does not change emotions. A ‘d’ in the range of 0.2 to 0.4 means the tactic is moderately effective, and anything larger is considered substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n