How to Restore Emotional Balance: A Guide for Overall Health Control 

Tension, unclear prospects of what is happening, and chronic stress negatively affect the mental balance of the person and create an atmosphere of nervousness and anxiety. On such an emotional background, it is impossible to work, study, or just live.

The only way out is to learn to manage stress and get rid of negative emotions. To do this, use a few simple psychotherapeutic techniques that do not require special training, deep immersion, and isolation. They can be performed in any condition and at any time, here and now.

Satisfaction of Basic Needs

It is rather not a technique, but a natural need to feel comfortable. So, it’s important to listen to yourself to isolate the root cause of emotional imbalance.

Mental equilibrium can be disturbed for no obvious reason. We simply understand that we feel bad, but what exactly is wrong is unclear. Here it is appropriate to remember the basis of psychology: Maslow’s pyramid. Its first three steps are of fundamental value:

• Satisfaction of physiological needs (for food, water, sleep, shelter).
• Satisfaction of safety needs.
• Satisfaction of communication needs.

If the basic needs are not met, there is an imbalance, an internal conflict: there are no obvious reasons, but the mood is the worst, everything falls out of hand, and nothing works. It’s essential to be in a good mood, to feel the rush of strength and enthusiasm if you are hungry or chronically not sleeping well. That’s why it’s so important to listen to ourselves: aren’t we hungry, don’t we want to sleep? In some situations, sleep is the best therapist, enough sleep to restore emotional balance.

The need for security largely lies in our feelings, the expert believes. So, it is not only about the absence of a threat as such.

A sense of security is made up of ordinary things: for example, the comfort of home, a comfortable home, and favorite clothes. Imagine that you don’t have warm clothes, or it’s cold at home, or there’s nothing to sleep on. It is quite difficult to remain emotionally stable in such a situation.

Another step is communication, and contact with people.

If there is no one to talk to about your emotions and experiences, especially heavy ones, it greatly affects the emotional balance. After all, why is therapy effective? Because it allows you to speak out. And in general, a person needs a person. If a person is lonely and doesn’t have a close trusting relationship, his mental comfort will inevitably suffer.

Thus, at a minimum, one must have one’s basic needs fully met in order to avoid or mitigate a state of emotional instability, which can manifest itself in irritation, sadness, apathy, anger, etc.

Playing the Piano

Imaginary piano playing is a good way to manage stress and emotions.

Imagine a piano. And then write down on a piece of paper what you do to get rid of unwanted emotions when you are sad, bad, irritated, feeling apathetic, or angry. Someone “nails” stress, someone goes to bed, someone goes for a walk with friends, or vice versa gets away. These are the keys to the piano. There almost certainly won’t be many of them. To break it down, when we feel bad, we press the same keys. Because of intensive use, sooner or later they break down and stop working. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to constantly invent and try new “keys”, i.e. to think of other options to “exhale” – to draw, to start beading, to jump with a parachute, to beat a pillow.

In fact, there are so many “keys”, you can use anything your imagination is capable of. Except ways to relieve inner tension that involve risking your life, or someone else’s.

Containment of Emotions

Containment means letting go, giving your feelings and emotions publicity, finding them a new home, and placing them in a kind of conditional container. This is the most effective step to dealing with your own feelings and emotions.

If negative feelings are kept inside and not released, they accumulate inside, layering on each other, turning into a huge dangerous charge that will inevitably explode. And the consequences of this “explosion” can be most deplorable.

It’s good if there is a loved one who is ready to listen to you and take your feelings in himself, as in a container. But if there is no such person, or he or she is not always around, then you can “transfer” your feelings into a real container. To do this, you need to visualize the speech, imagine how the spoken emotions in words come out of you and go into some container. For this purpose, one may use, for example, any box or jar with a lid. It’s important that this container should be tightly closed and serve as a reliable storehouse.

Even if you for some reason cannot visualize the process of “transferring” emotions into a box or circumstances do not allow you to do it, write down as much as possible about your feelings on paper and put them into the container. Sign the container, indicating what it holds (anger, resentment, anxiety, etc.), and hide it in the farthest corner of the shelf, where you rarely look. Time will pass and the boxes will become just boxes and not stored for the experienced feelings, and you can throw them away without any regret.

Containment as a way of managing stress and negative emotions can be combined with another therapeutic technique – art therapy. That is, disturbing feelings do not have to be only spoken. They can be drawn, molded, sung, danced, or photographed, creating a kind of installation reflecting your inner state. The main thing is to take the time to express your feelings. In the process of expressing your emotions through drawing, singing, or dancing, relief comes. You can’t help but feel it.

Relaxation Through Tension

Working with the muscles is also one of the techniques for achieving emotional balance.

When we experience strong feelings and emotions, we often don’t notice how our body reacts to them. Meanwhile, at moments of peak tension, it’s as if the body is constricting: shoulders shrunk, teeth clenched, every muscle pulled taut as a string. This happens reflexively. And at this moment, it’s useless to listen to yourself, trying to figure out what is going on inside you and why. It just won’t work. You have to achieve at least some kind of relaxation. That’s why muscle relaxation skills are very important. The easiest way: consciously tense up your whole body, even more, starting from your cheekbones and eyes to the tips of your toes. Tense up as much as possible and stay in that state for a few seconds. Then exhale and let go of the reins. That’s when you drive a wedge through a wedge.

Another simple exercise that can be done under any circumstances: focus not on emotions, but on physical sensations, and feel your body. For example, listen to your breathing, imagine your lungs filling up with air, your heart pulsing, and driving blood through your vessels. Shifting attention, and concentrating on the internal physical processes is good for coping with emotional swings and calming down.

Muscle relaxation techniques can also be combined with breathing techniques.

The simplest one is a deep slow breath in through the nose (if you want to concentrate) and a loud sharp exhalation through the mouth – helps, if you need to concentrate, to remove the anxiety and excitement that interfere with concentration.

For relaxation, another breathing technique is more suitable: quick inhalation and a very long slow exhalation.

Grounding

Finally, another simple but effective psychotherapeutic technique is grounding. Its essence is to help oneself not to lose a sense of reality.

Often under the influence of strong emotions man is so buried in their experiences, that he loses touch with reality. He literally lives in his feelings, forgetting his own needs (including basic needs) and responsibilities, and not even thinking about adding joy to his life, like getting into 20Bet sports betting or just going out with friends. He lives as if on automatic. This affects the person himself, everyone around him, and everything he does: relatives, friends, work, studies.

Grounding helps you to stay in the moment. The easiest thing is to lie down: on the floor, on the ground, on the bed. And try to focus on the smallest details around, and listen to the sounds, smells, and sensations. If the circumstances allow, it is better to “ground yourself” in a comfortable environment, in comfortable, cozy clothes. This allows you not to break away from reality and gives you an additional sense of security.

If it’s impossible to take a horizontal position, use the technique of conscious walking. It resonates with the grounding technique. By touching the ground with your feet as you walk, we are also grounded. Here it’s important to focus on the sensations of touching the ground with the heel, toe, full foot, rhythm, and breadth of the step.