The Killer Application To Regulate Your Emotions

Reappraisal or how can you stay cool under pressure - extract from "Your brain at work" by D. Rock

Reappraisal is a cognitive change strategy for regulating emotions.

Which are the four types of reappraisal that help you stay cool under pressure?

Reinterpreting - this happens when you decide that a threatening event is no longer a threat.

You usually do this type of reappraisal without being aware of it.

Think of this type of reappraisal as changing your raw emotional response to an event.

• Example: You are at an airport walking toward a gate you can’t see, you get anxious about missing your flight. Once the gate is in sight and you can see a queue of people, your anxiety drops.

Normalizing - when you can explain an experience, you reduce uncertainty and increase the perception of control. This builds up on the power of normalizing, by describing the emotions that occur in situations to help you reduce the threat response.

• Example: when you start a brand new job and you don’t have yet mental maps for even simple things like finding the restroom or coffee place. It’s all new for you. New means for your brain uncertain, which occupies your brain and it feels overwhelming. So it is important to know what to expect and how you might feel so that the level of uncertainty is reduced.

  

Reordering - when you reorder how you value the world, this changes the hierarchical structure of how your brain stores information, which changes how your brain interacts with the world.

• Example: Let’s suppose you value individual work more than teamwork and there is a situation when you need to accommodate with team work. If you try to find a way to put a positive spin on working with others, the value of this idea will raise. This results in a massive number of neurons in the brain being reordered into a new hierarchical structure which brings usually a big release of energy. And this helps you of course how you interact with the world in that specific situation.

Repositioning - one of the most common causes of tension between people is someone being fixed in his own worldview and not being able to see the world through another person’s eyes. When you take another person’s perspective, you are changing the context through which you view a situation which refers to this type of reappraisal.

• Example: when you meet someone you do not know and want to bring up your idea, try to see yourself through the other’s person’s eyes, when for example the other person puts questions. It can be it is not about lack of trust in the questions but because they are curious to understand you.

Think of this type of reappraisal as repositioning, as you are finding a new position from which you look at an event.

Reappraisal is metabolically expensive - you use a lot of energy for reappraisal because you need cognitive power. So reappraisal will be limited to the moments when you are well rested.

The good news is that the more you practice reappraisal, the less effort it takes, so get’s easier for you.

Next time when you are tough on yourself, you can say “It’s just my brain”. This statement is an act of reappraisal by itself.

Bottom line

It is up to YOU what you take away from these points which have in common the main idea to start with the end in your mind and how you will apply this.

Will you write in the comments your thoughts about what you can apply, please?

I am inviting you to register for one of the brain-based trainings created for you!

Here you find more details about the session:

Resources:

• Dr. David Rock: “Your Brain at Work”