22 Don’t Let A nxiety Run Your Life
theory of emotion regulation, which he called the process
model. In this model, five different processes unfold over
time and contribute to the expression and regulation of
emotions. Prior to experiencing emotion, you can make use
of a future- oriented process called situation selection. In
other words, you can consciously choose to participate in
certain situations that make pleasant emotions more likely
or avoid those that make unpleasant emotions more likely.
For instance, have you ever attempted to avoid your boss
because being in his presence makes you feel anxious and
uncomfortable? By purposefully choosing to avoid him, you
make it less likely that you will experience these sorts of neg-
ative emotions. Conversely, attempts to spend time with
cherished friends might count as forward- looking ways to
select situations that produce positive emotions. As you will
see later in this book, dysfunctional ways of using situation
selection are largely to blame for anxiety and related
emotions.
If you can’t avoid an anxiety- provoking situation alto-
gether, you can still alter your emotional experience in that
situation by way of situation modification. In other words,
you can still inf luence how the situation will give rise to
emotions as it occurs. Imagine that you are stumbling on
most of your words as you deliver a presentation. Obviously,
this could be very embarrassing, even petrifying. A mind
racing with concerns about what your audience must think
of you is enough to create a very unpleasant experience
indeed. But imagine that you use humor to defuse the situa-
tion. Jesting about your blunders puts everyone at ease and
reduces the burden you would normally place on yourself. In
this way, making explicit attempts to change the nature of a