Post 5 4/18

I reached out to Mrs. Collins in the counseling office for my mentor experience. I asked her questions about the different methods of “self- correction” and different “coping mechanisms”. I found her opinions and viewpoints very thoughtful. I agree with a lot of the things that she had to say. She pointed out to me that self-correction is more about managing behaviors whereas coping mechanisms are a better term to describe managing emotions. I hadn’t really thought about there being a distinction between these two things until she pointed that out to me. I think this is a very good point though because behaviors can be taught and learned based on patterns and consistency. However, emotions cannot be controlled quite the same way. We react to every situation differently as we encounter it. You can’t train yourself to react to things a certain way. However, you can train yourself to behave a certain way based on an emotion. For example, you can train yourself to take deep breaths until you calm down when you experience anger or sadness. Mrs. Colli
ns also gave me a list of things I could try when I need to manage my emotions. I have added these to my journal and I’m excited to try them out and see what does and doesn’t work for me.