Emotion regulation strategies can support us when emotions feel intense or overwhelming. For those navigating an eating disorder, it’s common to turn to disordered behaviors as a way to avoid or manage distress. Instead, these strategies offer alternative ways to stay present with your emotions – gently, safely and without harm.
These practices are not meant to make emotions disappear, but to help you move through them with greater awareness, compassion, and flexibility. With practice, these strategies can become part of your personal toolkit for building emotional resilience and responding to difficult moments with intention and care.
Disclaimer: These strategies are not intended to replace therapy, but to supplement ongoing work with a qualified professional.
Practice Meditation: Meditation helps create space between your emotions and the urge to react. Even a few minutes of quietly noticing your breathing, mindfully observing your physical sensations, or listening to a guided meditation can support emotional regulation by helping you stay grounded in the present moment – so you can respond to your emotions with awareness, not avoidance.
Explore Creative Outlets: Creative expression allows you to channel emotions into something tangible. Whether it’s painting, journaling, dancing, or photography, creative activities can support emotional processing and self-awareness – helping you stay connected to your feelings without resorting to eating disorder symptoms to cope.
Practice Compassionate Self-Talk: Notice when a self-critical thought arises and approach it with curiosity rather than judgment. Try offering yourself the same kindness and balanced perspective you would offer a close friend. This might sound like:
- “It’s okay to feel this way.”
- “I did the best I could with what I knew at the time.”
Practicing self-compassion and reappraising thoughts in this way isn’t about avoiding what’s hard – it’s about supporting yourself through difficult moments. With practice, compassionate self-talk can help you work through tough emotions and respond to them mindfully, rather than reacting to shame, guilt, or self-blame.
Engage your Senses: Use sensory grounding to connect you with the present moment. Try the 5-4-3-2-1 method, naming: 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, 1 thing you can taste. This technique can help you feel anchored and steady, especially when emotions feel overwhelming. It’s a way to stay grounded as your emotions naturally rise and fall – without immediately pushing them away in harmful ways.
Create your own Self-Care Routine: Self-care is most effective when it’s personalized. Think about what brings you a sense of comfort, calm, and connection before emotions become too intense. In a notebook or journal, write a list of go-to self-care ideas you can turn to when you need support. (i.e., sipping a warm cup of tea, taking a bath, reading a favorite book, going outside, or texting a friend).
#WorldMentalHealthDayWithRenfrew #RenfrewRecharge
World Mental Health Day, an annual campaign hosted by the World Federation for Mental Health, is an international holiday which celebrates awareness for the global community by empowering individuals to take action and create lasting change on the importance of mental health.
The Renfrew Center is pleased to offer ten support opportunities for alumni and the greater community to come together in recognizing this year’s theme, Access to Services – Mental Health in Catastrophes and Emergencies.
Learn more here: https://renfrewcenter.com/world-mental-health-day-2025/
