Linking A nxiety, Emotion, and Mindfulness 21
goals (for example, to learn how to problem solve in the face
of failure or loss). Though clarifying the nature of emotions
enables us to have a more fine- grained discussion of anxiety,
this is only part of the puzzle. The ability to manage or regu-
late emotions in a f lexible manner proves essential to mental
health, and this is our next topic.
Practice Think of a recent time when you experienced the emo-
tion of disgust. Bring to mind your initial appraisals of the object or
situation that made you feel disgusted. Identif y the feelings, physi-
cal sensations, and action tendencies associated with this experi-
ence. As you become comfortable with this exercise, we encourage
you to try it again with other emotions.
W hat Is Emotion Regulation?
As we alluded to above, emotions are purposeful in nature.
They can guide and direct you to pursue relevant goals in an
efficient manner. However, the relationship between emo-
tions and actions is not just one- way, such that emotions
lead to behavior. Rather, you also have the ability to inf lu-
ence your emotional experience. Emotion regulation refers
to “the processes by which individuals inf luence which emo-
tions they have, when they have them, and how they experi-
ence and express these emotions” (Gross 1998, 275). Like
emotions themselves, emotion regulation is a complex phe-
nomenon that proves difficult to define. Nevertheless,
research has identified some core features of emotion regu-
lation that are worth mentioning.
Building on contemporary conceptualizations of emo-
tions, James Gross (1998) developed a very inf luential