Cultivating Emotional Balance: Worksheet + Video Guidance
Understand yourself and your experience - start cultivating emotional balance by downloading and printing out this PDF worksheet and following along below!
Materials and Process:
Print out the worksheet
Get extra paper and a pen for drawing the emotion timeline
Watch the video as you complete the worksheet. Pause as needed! Soon you’ll be able to do this as long as you have a pen and paper.
Emotional Awareness — A Worksheet and Mini Workshop for Therapists and Clients
Emotional experiences form the easiest and most difficult moments of our human experience, and many of us grapple with how to navigate our feelings, especially the difficult ones like sadness, anger, or fear. At The Wren - our west Ottawa therapy centre - we see these emotions as bridges to insight and growth rather than problems to be eliminated. We’ve created this worksheet and guidance resource to help you develop a healthier relationship with emotions.
Paul and Eve Ekman and their collaboration with the Dalai Lama birthed the concept of the “emotion timeline” or map - the journey from the beginning to (possible) end of an emotion. We use this concept of emotion timeline, as well as our own biopsychosocial and relational lenses to explore an instance of a difficult emotion you’ve had, while our worksheet helps you explore this experience.
The Importance of Emotional Balance
Suppressing emotions may seem like a desirable fix, but research shows it can lead to long-term physical and psychological issues, such as increased anxiety, stress-related illnesses, and even depression. Unfortunately you can’t selectively suppress emotions - when you suppress your emotional experience, you suppress the pleasant ones, too. Instead of suppression, our goal is to build emotional intelligence - the ability to notice, understand, articulate, and skillfully respond to emotional experiences in the moment.
Emotional balance requires self-compassion, mindfulness, and cultivating a sense of connection with others. Learning to identify the full spectrum of emotions in your experience, even the uncomfortable ones, enables us to understand their purpose and manage them.
Why Emotion Regulation is Desirable
Emotional suppression can have unintended consequences. When we push away difficult emotions like anger, sadness, or fear, we also limit our ability to fully experience positive emotions like joy, excitement, and love. This can leave us feeling disconnected, both from ourselves and from others. The step-by-step guide in our worksheet and video help you explore your emotional responses with curiosity and compassion, ultimately leading to greater self-awareness and resilience.
The Power of Awareness: Building Emotional Insight
The first dimension of emotional balance is awareness. Whether through therapy, meditation, or mindfulness practices, building emotional awareness involves observing how emotions arise, manifest in the body, and shape our thoughts and actions. This process is about noticing patterns and triggers, becoming attuned to the way different experiences influence our emotional states.
Our structured reflection process is a helpful experiential learning exercise, and we begin with a single emotional experience. By narrowing the focus to a specific moment rather than a prolonged emotional state, you can explore the following questions in detail:
How were you physically? What sensations or discomforts were present in your body?
What was happening in your mind? Were you focused, scattered, or distracted?
How connected did you feel socially or spiritually? Were you with others, alone, or communicating in some way?
By exploring these dimensions, you can uncover the subtle ways in which emotions influence your body and mind and vice versa! Providing valuable insights that lay the foundation for developing healthier emotional habits.
What about strategies for emotion regulation in the moment?
While this video and worksheet largely focuses on cultivating awareness, here are some strategies for managing emotional experiences in the moment.
Balancing emotions involves more than just understanding them—it’s about applying practical strategies in real-time to shift your relationship with your feelings. Here are several evidence-based strategies that you can use or share:
Cognitive Reappraisal
“Cognitive reappraisal” is a fancy way of saying: actively challenging unhelpful thoughts and reframing them to see other perspectives or acknowledge your perspective is limited. This strategy can be particularly useful when your initial emotional response feels disproportionate or intense. Ask yourself, How true is this thought? or What’s the most compassionate interpretation I can bring?. Practicing this form of mental flexibility helps reduce emotional distress and enables you to approach challenges with a more balanced mindset.
Embodied Emotional Awareness
There are no emotions without your body! Emotions manifest physically, such as a tightening of the chest when anxious or tension in the jaw when angry. Practicing embodied emotional awareness means tuning into these sensations, noting where and how they arise in the body, and giving yourself permission to stay present with them. When we don’t examine these sensations, they maintain heightened emotions and unhelpful reactions. This somatic approach helps you observe emotions non-judgmentally, creating space to understand their origins and how they affect you.
Rehearse and Prepare
Every December, therapists’ offices have clients rehearsing and preparing for potentially challenging moments at holiday parties and family dinners. This is an effective strategy no matter how small or significant the moment could be. Preparing yourself mentally for potentially challenging situations can lessen the intensity of your emotional responses - sometimes that’s coming up with 1-2 line scripts; sometimes it’s walking yourself through scenarios. (Please note: ruminating (over-thinking) about a situation is not the same thing; that’s a great way to maintain anxiety.)
Practicing Self-Compassion
Replace self-criticism when you’re feeling overwhelmed or reacting strongly and practice self-compassion. One effective technique is to write a letter to yourself from the perspective of a compassionate friend, offering words of encouragement and empathy. Another would be to simply lay a hand on your heart and take a breath infused with a feeling of loving-kindness.
Using the “Anchor View” to Stabilize Emotions
For those who appreciate visual techniques, you can visualize yourself as an anchor in a storm when emotions become turbulent. This mental imagery helps you stay grounded as you observe your feelings without being swept away. Acknowledge what you’re feeling, bring balance into your nervous system through mindful breathing, and then consider what’s needed in that moment. This approach can help shift you out of a reactive state and into one of mindful presence
Engaging with Awe and Gratitude
This is real: Regularly connecting with feelings of awe—whether through nature, art, or meaningful conversations—can have a powerful impact on emotional regulation. So get out the David Attenborough documentaries, marvel at a tiny plant growing a sidewalk crack or closely examine a pattern. Similarly, practicing gratitude by reflecting on the positive aspects of your day or expressing appreciation to others can shift your emotional state towards positivity and balance. A daily practice could be sharing - with yourself in a journal, an email pen pal, or at the dinner table - what you’re grateful for or what your moment of wonder was that day.
Integrating Practices that Improve Mindfulness
Ugh - we know - like you need one more website or person telling you that you “should” be doing these things. We’d stop it if everyone was using these cheap, accessible techniques, like deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, or mindful movement to reduce emotional reactivity and promote a sense of calm. Real talk: not every technique is for everyone - some people will feel more panicked when they try deep breathing. But for some people, that will only last through their first few tries. At The Wren Centre in west Ottawa, many of our therapists integrate somatic therapy techniques with kids, teens, and adults. If you’re not sure how to start or want support, ask your therapist.
By combining these strategies, you can build a robust emotional toolkit that promotes resilience, self-awareness, and emotional regulation.
Supporting you in west Ottawa or anywhere online
The Wren Centre is dedicated to providing therapeutic resources that foster emotional intelligence and a diversity of approaches. Our integrative philosophy combines mindfulness, compassion practices, and body-centered therapies to support clients in exploring their inner worlds with courage and curiosity.
Explore our blog for more resources, or reach out to connect with a therapist who can support you on your journey to emotional well-being.
