Skills System E-Learning Couse 1 Skills Basics -Lesson 1a. Introduction to Emotion Regulation

Watch this video to see a sample of the Skills System E-Learning course videos @skillssystem. The Skills System videos are fun, colorful, engaging, and fairly short! There are exercises and many free downloadable resources that help everyone learn and generalize skills into natural environments. The Skills System E-Learning teaching us about emotions and how to manage them to reach our personal goals and live aligned with our values. Whether you have emotion regulation challenges or you work/live with someone who does, the E-Learning is a valuable tool.

Transcript:
Lesson 1a: Introduction to Emotion Regulation
Welcome to the Skills System! I’m so glad you are here! My name is Julie Brown. I am the author of the Skills System. Today we are going to learn the Skills System Basics. I hope you enjoy this learning experience. There will be videos and exercises. Take as much time as you need. My goal is to help you to learn all of the skills and how to create on-track skills chains. I would recommend that you have a pad of paper and a pen handy, in case you want to take notes.
Whether you love learning, haven’t had great experiences in school, or English is not your first language- I invite you to take On-Track Actions and Jump in with Both Feet to this course. We will work together at your pace. At any time you can hit the pause button to stop and return to that spot when ready.
When we are motivated, it is easier to learn. So, let’s take a few minutes to think about why we are doing this? Why does it make sense for us to learn the Skills System? Here’s my take on it….
Skills System skills are built to help us regulate our emotions. The skills are strategies we use to change how strong and how long emotions last. We can’t make them disappear, but we can learn how to have them AND stay on-track to our goals.
Sometimes emotions get strong, quickly. When our emotions go up, it is hard to think clearly and control our actions. Strong emotions can last a really long time. Experiencing high emotions can feel like walking over a narrow bridge above a canyon. Will we go off-track? Will we get across the emotion and be OK? How long is this bridge? I can’t see the end! It can be pretty scary. High emotions sometimes feel like they will last forever. Emotions are so challenging sometimes that we try to avoid them. Unfortunately, avoiding emotions- rather than experiencing and using skills to get across them- can actually make things worse! We sometimes react quickly in a desperate attempt to feel better.
To deal with the ups and downs of life in healthy ways, we need to have skills that help us get across the entire span -of ALL sizes of emotions. Using the Skills System we see the situation as it is- using Clear Picture…then we think about how we are going to deal with the situation using On-Track Thinking… and then we take enough On-Track Actions using our other skills to get through the emotion AND get to our goals.
Sometimes we don’t use enough skills to get through an emotion. We’ve all been there- one way or another- Off track! If we don’t use enough skills to get across all of the parts of an emotion, we are more likely to go off-track in stressful situations.
Thankfully, the Skills System skills can help us get Back On-Track! When we look back at our off-track actions, we can learn how to get across the bridge next time. Learning the Skills System gives us tools to handle all of the parts of emotions, so we can get across the bridges we face.
Are you ready to move on to learn about the nine core skills in the Skills System? Please listen to this section again if you need more time.