By: Evelyn Coronado, PAC Pulse Staff Reporter
On Wednesday, March 9th, The Social Circle, a PAC community that provides mental health counseling, held a zoom session titled “Coping and Managing your Emotions”. This online event was produced by PAC counselors to promote wellness and academic success by providing students resources and outreach opportunities.
In the meeting Andrea Flores, a counselor from Palo Alto College, went over what emotions are and reviewed emotional intelligence. She connected how a part of your brain deals with those emotions and the reason behind those feelings. When talking about emotions and going in depth about why we have them, Flores states, “Your emotions are there for a reason, but it’s also to help you deal with all these things that surround you”. Flores went on to talk about the seven strategies to help you manage your emotions when they are overwhelming and reviewed how to react to people or situations.
According to Flores’ presentation at the event, “Coping and Managing Emotions,” these are the 7 strategies to help manage your emotions:
- Pause
- Volume Control
- Mute
- Record
- Rewind
- Fast Forward
- Slow-Motion
Flores went in depth about how these seven strategies can help students and gave examples of how to use them. When talking about the “pause” strategy, Flores mentioned, “…take some time to stop and think before you speak or act”. This is helpful when you feel as though you do not have proper control of your emotions and need to calm down to evaluate the situation.
When a conversation is escalating, the “volume control” strategy could be used to de-escalate the situation and lower your voices to have a calmer conversation.
Use the “mute” strategy when your partner is emotional and sharing your viewpoint on a situation isn’t helping. The only way to let them calm down is if you just let them get everything out.
“Record” is when you are concentrating on what the other person is saying to see things that you don’t see, especially their perspective on the situation.
The “rewind” strategy is used to revisit the topic later once everyone has had the chance to cool down and clear their heads.
“Fast-Forward” is used to view the consequences of your actions in the situation in both the long and short-term to help you see the bigger picture and make better decisions.
“Slow-Motion” is used to analyze in depth why you are having these negative emotions, and to help you figure out the reasons behind them. This action will lead you to better solutions.
At the end of the presentation, Flores mentioned positive activities students can do that will help manage their emotions. She reminded the audience that emotions are a human thing and that finding balance is key. Her presentation stated, “The key is not to take emotions out of the equation, but rather to find balance. That way, you’ll be sure to make emotions work for you, instead of against you”.
During our meeting, other attendees were asked to share some of the emotions they’ve had recently. Flores ensured a comfortable environment where students could openly share.
If you want to learn more about mental health and about personal wellness in a comfortable environment, then sign up for the next Social Circle meeting! Next meeting is on Wednesday April 27th of 2022, sign up here: https://alamo.campuslabs.com/engage/event/7760339, or you can schedule an appointment with a Counselor by phone at (210)486-3750, or email at Pac-counselor@alamo.edu for the PAC counseling services.
PAC Student Media 