When negative emotions such as fear or anxiety or despair arise in uncertain times, an excellent strategy to keep them in check is Name It to Tame It, a technique introduced by Dr. Dan Siegel.
Simply by naming what emotions are coming up, you create a bit of space between you and that emotion.
So, rather than feeling that “I am frustrated,” shift your perspective to “I'm experiencing frustration.”
Simply doing this starts to calm you down. When you calm down your amygdala—that part of your brain involved in the “fight-flight-freeze” mode— it gives you space to come up with a more thoughtful and appropriate response than simply being swept up in frustration or whatever else you are experiencing.
Dr. Siegel explains that you are using storytelling to appeal to the left brain’s affinity for words and reasoning. This calms emotional storms and bodily tension originating in the right-brain.
Name the emotion to tame the emotion.