There are certain social and emotional learning skills that are key to educators creating positive, affirming environments for young people. Just as we strive to help our students develop social and emotional learning skills, adults also need to continue developing these skills in the ever-changing social contexts in which we interact with students, families, and our fellow educators. One of these skills is practicing self-regulation, or learning to monitor and regulate our emotional state, which, in turn, helps create a more positive learning environment for our students.

Self-regulation is the practice of learning to monitor and regulate our emotional state, which, in turn, helps create a more positive learning environment for our students.

Practicing self-regulation is especially important when we are in a state of dysregulation. You may recognize times when you or your students express a strong emotional reaction that may be more intense than the situation that caused it. You can think of this reaction as a type of dysregulation, which involves the nervous system.

Dysregulation is a strong, intense emotional reaction that includes responses beyond what is typical in situations of stress.

Symptoms of dysregulation include outbursts of anger or episodes of acute anxiety. You may notice a fight, flight, or freeze response. This can also be referred to as a trauma response.

Once you have the awareness that you’re dysregulated, bringing yourself back to a regulated state, where you can feel a range of emotions and be sufficiently flexible to your circumstances, can sometimes be as easy as pausing and taking a few deep breaths. It might sound simplistic, but with a little practice, pausing to breathe can be a really effective tool to move your nervous system from a state of reactivity to one of more ease.

Being regulated means to be in an emotional state where you are able to comfortably feel and react with manageable responses to a stimulus. Tools such as breathing allow us to regulate ourselves to be able to adjust and respond in appropriate and typical manners to situations or moments of stress.

Want to Go Deeper? (Optional activity)

Learn more about how your brain and your physical experience can affect how you show up for students.

Watch this interview, Connecting the Brain and Body to Advance Equity Work with healing justice facilitator Terna Tilley-Gyado about a body-based approach to well-being called somatic centering.

Explore this toolkit for leaders engaged in equity work: Connecting the Brain and Body to Support Equity Work (PDF).