#🧰 # take your emotional temperature ![[calendar-plus.svg]] <small>Mar 10, 2023</small> | ![[calendar-clock.svg]] <small>Mar 18, 2023</small> 🏷️[[self-awareness]] ### Action Item When dealing with heightened emotional states, there are cognitive and physical approaches to changing how you feel. Some tools work better than others depending on the situation. Taking your emotional temperature helps you determine which approach might work best. ### How to Use This Tool **What:** Reflecting on your emotional state to determine which tool(s) will best help manage how you're feeling. **When:** When you're in a heightened emotional state and want to change how you are feeling. For instance, you are feeling anxious and want to calm yourself. **How:** 1. Become aware of your feeling. 2. Name the feeling. 3. Rate how strong the feeling is on a scale of 1 - 10, where 10 is a full-on panic attack and 1 is calm and relaxed. 4. If the emotion is at a 5 or lower, you can use a cognitive approach and select from [[mind tools to overcome anxiety]] (e.g. journal to write out your worries, rationalize with yourself). 5. If the emotion is at a 6 or higher, a physical approach will work best to manage the physiological response before you are able to rationalize, so you should select from [[body tools to overcome anxiety]]. --- ## Sources [[20 Tools to Tame Anxiety - Good Life Project]]