Introduction 9
emotions. Both emotion regulation and mindfulness
promote awareness and acceptance of emotions, but they do
so in different, yet complementary, ways.
Research on emotion regulation suggests that the use of
certain strategies in appropriate contexts can facilitate the
healthy expression and experience of emotions. Not all strat-
egies are equally helpful, however; some responses to emo-
tions can have negative long- term consequences, despite
their seeming benefit. Take worry, for instance. Initially, it
might seem like a good idea to worry about some potential
mishap or something that can go wrong in your life. Spending
a great deal of effort to scrutinize how an event might play
out can make you believe that you will be well prepared to
better handle the source of your concerns. Even though this
type of technique is a direct way of responding to discom-
fort and seems proactive, which is often the chief goal of suc-
cessful emotion regulation, it can be insidiously harmful.
Worry ref lects a repetitive thinking style that promotes both
overly judgmental reactions to your concerns and unwanted
emotions. This is completely opposed to the central tenets
of mindfulness.
Integrating emotion regulation and mindfulness estab-
lishes a comprehensive framework that tells us what strate-
gies work (emotion regulation) and when and how to employ
them (mindfulness). Take the strategy of “expressive sup-
pression,” for example, or concealing outward expression of
your emotions. In the long term, this overly reactive strat-
egy, which entails conscious efforts to banish an emotional
experience from your mind because you judge it to be bad, is
generally dysfunctional. It violates many core principles of
helpful emotion regulation and mindfulness, and over time
it can lead to sustained levels of distress. But there are ways