How well do you self regulate? How easily are you able to control your emotions in a situation? Are you able to control your impulses or behaviour? What about the things you say or do to others? Just a few questions to think about...but I hope you will. The more you know about how you respond and react...the more you're able to change things moving forward.
When it comes to self regulation...it is something that is within our abilities to learn about and I do believe we can adopt this skill into our lives as adults. It requires getting to know yourself in an intimate way...learning your triggers and learning how you respond to them...and what you can do differently too.
Self regulation is akin to self-control in many ways but it also goes beyond that. Learning how to respond differently, learning how to change how you think, and even how you may act at times too and gaining new coping skills are a part of it too.
I'd like to share some information to get you started learning about self regulation. This article is geared toward personal health management and I hope when you're done reading it that you will give serious thought to how your are managing your health and whether you're doing the best for you.
If you have further questions about this theory there are multiple sites on the web to check out or even speak to your doctor...they may have some suggestions too. If you're seeing a counsellor as a part of your treatment...talk to them too okay? Learning about one's own behaviour takes time and it takes patience too.
Please keep in mind that when you start adopting new behaviours or life skills...you are changing behaviours you've used throughout your life...give yourself the time to learn new ones as you move forward.
take good care of you
Tammy
Self-regulation includes impulse control, the management of short-term desires. People with low impulse control are prone to acting on immediate desires. This is one route for such people to find their way to jail as many criminal acts occur in the heat of the moment. For non-violent people it can lead to losing friends through careless outbursts, or financial problems caused by making too many impulsive purchases.
Although a doctor may give a patient sound medical advice, the theory states that only with self-regulation will the patient appropriately implement that advice. For medical treatment to be effective, the patient needs to be interested in improving one's own health.
SRT consists of several stages. First, the patient deliberately monitors one's own behavior, and evaluates how this behavior affects one's health. If the desired effect is not realized, the patient changes personal behavior. If the desired effect is realized, the patient reinforces the effect by continuing the behavior. (Kanfer 1970;1971;1980)
Another approach is for the patient to realize a personal health issue and understand the factors involved in that issue. The patient must decide upon an action plan for resolving the health issue. The patient will need to deliberately monitor the results in order to appraise the effects, checking for any necessary changes in the action plan. (Leventhal & Nerenz 1984)
Outside of health management, self-regulation theory is used to explain the cognitive bias known as illusion of control. To the extent that people are driven by internal goals concerned with the exercise of control over their environment, they will seek to reassert control in conditions of chaos, uncertainty or stress. Failing genuine control, one coping strategy will be to fall back on defensive attributions of control—leading to illusions of control (Fenton-O'Creevy et al., 2003).
Another factor that can help the patient reach his/her own goal of personal health is to relate to the patient the following:
Help them figure out the personal/community views of the illness, appraise the risks involved, and give them potential problem-solving/coping skills. Four components of self-regulation described by Baumeister et al. (2007) are:
- Standards: Of desirable behavior.
- Motivation: To meet standards.
- Monitoring: Of situations and thoughts that precede breaking standards.
- Willpower: Internal strength to control urges
the above information was copied from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-regulation_theory
There are many other sites with further information on Self Regulation if you're wanting to read further. I do encourage you to read more about this and to get to know yourself in a whole new way. Good luck! and I wish you all the best.
Tammy