71: Understanding Your Emotions With Mindfulness & Without Judgement

Welcome to another episode of The Good Mood Clinic Podcast!

Dr Gemma Gladstone discusses mindfulness to emotions in this extended podcast lesson.  Gemma describes what emotions are and the difference between the 5 basic emotions (anger, fear, sadness, disgust and joy) and more complex emotions such as shame. 

She discusses why it is so important to acknowledge and experience emotions rather than suppressing, blocking and criticising them.  She recaps why the parenting practice of Emotion Coaching is so useful for young and developing children and how these practice lead to better skills of emotion regulation in children as they develop. 

Gemma also breaks down the several components of an emotion (eg, physical sensations, mood and action 'urges') and differentiates these from the behavioural reactions and coping responses that follow the emotion.

She then breaks down the steps you can take to slow things down, create a mindful pause and experience your emotions more intentionally.  By doing so, you are more able to understand your inner emotional experiences and choose to respond differently if you need to.