Self-Regulation Processing Method Worksheet
“Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Viktor Frankl
This method helps you move from reactivity to intentional action by guiding you through awareness, acknowledgment, acceptance, understanding, and deliberate choice. It is about accepting reality with clarity and responding with purpose.
Self-Regulation Processing Method
- Awareness: Notice what you’re doing, feeling, and thinking—your current experience.
- Take a moment to breathe and take a step back to observe the situation.
- Acknowledgment: Name your actions, thoughts, or feelings.
- Recognize the urge or behavior: “I was/am…” pacing, avoiding, raising my voice, etc.
- Label the feeling: “I am feeling…” upset, anxious, etc. Even if it is ‘this uncomfortable feeling’.
- Note the thought: “I am thinking…” that they are judging me, etc. or “I had the thought that…”
- Acceptance: Recognize that this is reality. This is the current truth of the situation.
- Allow reality to be without resistance or trying to fight, deny, reject, or avoid what is real.
- Acceptance does not mean that you condone, think it is right, agree with it.
- Understanding: Reflect on possible causes, patterns, and meaning.
- Become curious and seek to gain clarity about the situation and your experience.
- What was going on before this situation? What might have influenced it?
- Mindful Deliberation: Choose your next move with intention.
- Reflect and evaluate your situation to determine how you want to handle it—do what you’ve done before or do something new.
- Deliberation is about reasoning and action. How are you choosing to act or respond? What is within your control?
Self-Regulation Techniques
Examples include…
- Having a conversation
- Setting boundaries
- Journaling
- Going for a walk
- Intentional breathing
- Tapping (EFT)
- Taking a break
- Doing the opposite of what you are feeling or doing
- Using positive self-talk
- Self-compassion
- Progressive muscle relaxation or grounding exercises
- Behavioral activation (i.e., engaging in meaningful or pleasurable activities)
- Mindful awareness or body scan
- Engage in value-based action
- Physical movement or change (i.e., embodied cognition; e.g., power poses)
- Reframing