Techniques for Suppressing Emotions

Distraction

• Distracting yourself helps push a strong emotion to the back of your mind. The key is to choose a distraction that takes you away from your feelings. If you suffer from feelings of unrequited love, avoid romantic movies or songs. If you recently suffered from a stressful miscarriage, avoid children and movies about parenting. Popular distraction methods include talking with friends, eating out, exercising, indulging in a hobby, watching a movie, playing a musical instrument or completing productive work.
  
  

Deep Breathing and Meditation

• Deep breathing helps dissolve tension and anxiety. To engage in deep breathing, sit in a calm, quiet place. Close your mouth and eyes. Take a breath that fills your ribs and lungs with air. Hold the breath for a moment and release the breath through your nose. With each breath, inhale and exhale more and more slowly. Build to a slow breath that consists of 10 seconds of inhaling, several seconds of holding the breath in your lungs and 10 seconds of exhaling.
  
  To turn deep breathing into meditation, continue closing your eyes and focusing on your breathing. Think only of breathing as you attempt to clear your mind of thought. You may wish to avoid meditation if you're suffering from strong emotions. Meditation often brings repressed thoughts to the front of your mind.
  
  

Preempting

• Preempting techniques involve imagining a scenario and deciding your emotional reaction. Preempting may consist of imagining yourself successfully completing a speech or planning your calm reaction if your boyfriend breaks up with you. Though preempting typically fails to result in a completely emotionless reaction, it helps reduce anxiety from stressful situations. To preempt effectively, imagine yourself engaging in the desired reactions. For example, if you imagine your boyfriend breaking up with you, do not imagine yourself convincing him to change his mind. Instead, imagine yourself responding with a calm, rational demeanor and saying that you understand his decision.
  
  

Smile Therapy and Laughter

• When you smile or frown, your facial muscles send an emotional response to your brain, increasing your feelings of happiness or sadness. Smile therapy capitalizes on these emotional responses. The simple techniques require nothing but a smile. Sit in a calm location by yourself and spend several sections with a smile on your face. To engage in a more natural form of smile therapy, engage in a behavior that leads to laughter. Watch a funny movie, look up jokes online or listen to a comedy CD. Laughter distracts you and lifts your mood, pushing negative feelings away.
  
  

Unhealthy Emotional Supression

• Suppressing your emotions with mind-altering substances often leads to negative side effects. Avoid using drugs or alcohol to create calmness. Avoid other compulsive behaviors, such as binging on junk food, engaging in promiscuous sex or smoking cigarettes. These behaviors increase your risk of addiction and create a habit of suppressing your emotions.