Take a Meta-Moment: A Fresh Look at Emotion Regulation to Cope With Stress

• In Event: Stress and Coping in Education SIG Business Meeting

Abstract

How often do intense emotions ­ job stress, family pressure, performance anxiety, and daily frustration ­ get the best of you? How often do you "lose it" and then later regret the outcome of your uncontrolled emotions. What if you had a research-proven tool that not only helped you to calm down or get a grip, but also empowered you to become the best self you could be at home, school or work?

A large part of my career has been spent creating and integrating evidence-based social and emotional learning programs which teach children and the adults involved in their education the skills necessary to establish supportive relationships with others, resolve conflict productively, cope with stress adaptively, and adopt behaviors that promote their well being so they can thrive in an increasingly competitive and dysregulated society.

In my presentation, I will focus on one of our team's newest innovations, an emotion management technique called the "Meta-Moment." A Meta-Moment is a process for prolonging and managing the "space in time" between an emotional stimulus and response in order to deal with stress and other unpleasant emotions, promote personal well-being and achieve professional growth.
Meta-Moments help individuals to respond to emotions quickly and effectively. The six-step process includes building a deeper awareness of what triggers our emotions, learning how to recognize the shifts (cognitive, physiological, and behavioral) that accompany such triggers; learning techniques to catch ourselves in order to avoid being swept up by our emotions; creating and invoking representations to build a better self; developing a tool box of research-based strategies to reduce or enhance emotions; and building effective action plans in order to achieve personal and professional success. A particular focus of my presentation will be on the fourth step in the Meta-Moment process, activating one's best self, which distinguishes the technique from other methods of self-management.

Author

• Marc A. Brackett, Yale University