Working with emotions

Many of the tools and techniques can help us to work explicitly with the emotional dimension of reflection.

• Mindfulness practice can help increase our awareness of interoceptive information from our bodies that feed into our appraisal of our own emotional state, particularly if we focus on describing the experience rather than immediately attaching a label to it

• On the other hand, naming and categorisation of emotions and an understanding of operant conditioning can help us to process, articulate and review those aspects of our experience.

• Emotional reappraisal can help us to find alternative ways of interpreting and responding to situations.

• Focusing on the learning value of all counterfactual orientations can help us to value potentially aversive emotions such as guilt or regret in the reflective process.

• Perspective shifting and self-distancing can help to control the emotional content of our reflections.