A short presentation by Betsy Guerra explaining that emotions arise from our interpretation of events rather than the events themselves, and that we can regulate emotions by changing our interpretations (reframing). The talk outlines the thought–emotion–action cycle, validates experiencing pain, and encourages reframing and seeking support when needed.
Chapters
Today I'll share with you the truth about emotions and how to navigate them. When things go great in life, we experience a lot of joy and excitement and we're happy. When things don't go our way, we feel sad, depressed, angry, irritable. And we think that it's the situation or the circumstance, the external circumstance that we were exposed to that created that emotion. But the truth is that emotions are not created by something outside of us. Emotions are not created by the person who cursed at us, who offended us, by the thing that happened. Emotions are created by our interpretation of that thing that happened. We have power over our emotions because we have power over our interpretation of facts. So next time that you think like, you know, I'm going to be grieving forever and I'm going to feel this pain forever, and that's it, my life is over, think again. You have a choice. You decide. Is your life going to be over? Are you going to be grieving forever? Are you going to be sad and angry and frustrated forever? It's up to you. By changing the way you interpret something, you change the way you feel about it. And that's like, that's part of, in psychology, it's that triangle between our thoughts, our emotions, and our actions. If we think something, we tend to feel a certain way based on that interpretation and, and then we act accordingly. But we can change any of those three and everything else will change in the cycle. And I encourage you to change by reframing. If you have framed something, if you have interpreted something as the worst thing ever, what ended your life, and what's gonna make you bitter and miserable for the rest of it, then why don't you reframe it? Why don't you change the perspective? Perspective with which you're looking at it by looking at the silver lining, by exploring the thing that you can learn from it, how that can be. Have happened for you instead of to you, you get to decide how you're going to feel. And you can regulate your emotions not by learning how to regulate pain and, you know, excruciating agony and depression, but, but rather by changing the emotion you're going to choose to engage in. I know it's easier said than done. There's a reason why it's called reframe, because naturally we frame it in a way that's painful and we feel all the feels and it is important to experience the pain, like all the emotions that you are trying to run away from are healing in some way. So feel the feels. Frame it the way you need to. And when you're ready to change your emotions and to live a meaningful life that allows you to have learned from those experiences, then reframe. And you don't have to do it alone. If you need extra support in your process of reframing and regulating your emotions, we're happy to support you@betterwithbetsy.com.
