As a senior research scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, I’ve spent much of my career studying the power of emotion regulation. I’ve found that some of the most successful and creative people are skilled at regulating their emotions. In fact, it’s their superpower.
Emotion regulation isn’t just about feeling happy; it’s about being capable of weathering unknowns with grace. When you’re building something new, you must be able to tolerate the risks associated with creative work. This means accepting a certain level of uncertainty and learning to navigate moments of unpleasantness and frustration.
People need a full range of emotions to be successful in work and life. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by feelings, but you have more control than you think. Here’s how to get better at emotion regulation.
1. Protect your time
People who are great at emotion regulation are very careful about how they choose to spend their time. They are skilled at gauging what will drain them and what will energize them, and there is a name for this approach: “situation selection.”
Situation selection doesn’t mean avoiding stress or high stakes experiences. It means working through tough moments by leading with your personal values and goals. For example, you might want to work on a long-term dream project, like publishing a book. It’s very likely that it won’t be completely smooth sailing.
But when it comes to creative work, if you know going in that temporary unpleasantness will be worth it for what you are able to achieve on the other side, you can start to manage your feelings before they have the chance to overwhelm you.
2. Change your environment
While writing my book, I had to juggle working full-time as a research scientist with meeting publication deadlines. It was difficult to transition mentally from my day job of data analysis to writing. So I regulated my emotions by changing my physical environment.
Instead of writing at my desk, I went to the local Barnes & Noble. It signaled to my brain that it was time for a different task with different objectives. This eased the stress, and my progress became much more consistent. Altering my environment gave me more agency and mastery over my emotions.
3. Redirect your attention
We all know that distracting ourselves from physical pain helps to ease it. This also works with emotional distress.
If you become overwhelmed by frustration while discussing the direction of a project, for example, taking a break and doing something different will not only lessen the aggravation but might even provide the distance necessary to see the value of a different perspective.
In one study, researchers found that people were most creative when they had challenging goals, and when they were able to switch between tasks. Both helped them stay motivated and redirect their attention productively.
4. Redefine setbacks
When you think you have failed, you often feel many strong emotions, including disappointment, discouragement, frustration, and despair. This is all normal and understandable. But these emotions can block us from regrouping and trying again.
In the wake of a setback, it helps take a step back, stay curious and look for alternative explanations and new discoveries. Why are the people you are engaging with reacting a certain way? Do they not care, or do they just not have enough information to understand the stakes?
You can also reassess triggers of your own feelings. You can be activated and jittery because you are anxious, but also because you are deeply invested in something.
5. Change your reaction
We’ve all been there. You’re dealing with a client or a customer, and you are tired but have to appear enthusiastic and pleasant. You might be aggravated but need to show patience, be accommodating, and creatively solve a problem at hand. This is called “emotional labor.”
In these moments you have two options.
Surface acting: Pretend you are actually experiencing the feelings demanded by the situation. This can get you through, but it is stressful and emotionally exhausting, and I don’t recommend it. Deep acting: Put real effort into trying to change your feelings to truly experience the emotions and attitudes the situation demands.
Deep acting is the best course of action because it inspires you to get to a more genuine, motivated, and creative place. Changing your reaction can change your mood, and the more you practice this, the better you will be at regulating your emotions.
Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, PhD is a senior research scientist at Yale University’s Center for Emotional Intelligence. She is a regular contributor to Psychology Today and Creativity Post, and co-editor of “The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity and Emotions” and “Crises, Creativity, and Innovation.” She is the author of “The Creativity Choice: The Science of Making Decisions to Turn Ideas into Action.” She lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
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The following is an adapted excerpt from “The Creativity Choice: The Science of Making Decisions to Turn Ideas into Action” by Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle. Copyright © 2025 by Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle. Published by PublicAffairs, an imprint of Hachette Book Group.
