Bounce Back

Emotional regulation is the ability to exert control over one’s own emotional state - to bounce back and harmonize to an ideal state or emotion. Throughout our day we all fluctuate from being aroused - excited, playful, happy to maybe nervous, anxious or irritated. Sometimes we are triggered to a state of sadness, anger, fear or aggression and other times we are moved to tears with joy, love and compassion.

Our ability to fluctuate between emotional states is a learned and developmental skill set. Child development research shows that babies and children develop self soothing techniques and display learned behaviors based on observed interactions with their care givers known as mutual-regulation. It makes sense - we have a natural human tendency to self soothe and then we learn techniques by observing behavior.

But what happens if your ability to regulate is more complicated? What happens if you brain jumps to extreme emotions and takes longer to even out once triggered? What if your natural instincts for self soothing are displayed in a way that is socially unacceptable? What if what works for you doesn't really work for others?

For those that have extra challenges with how their brain reacts or communication limitations like people with autism, those with traumatic brain injuries or Alzheimers - emotional regulation is a major challenge. It can prevent and limit social interactions, sometimes leads to self-harm or aggressive outbursts and in some cases results in medication intervention to reduce behaviors.

How challenging it must be to have big emotions but be unable to express them, connect or relate them to those around you or have them seemingly come out of nowhere? Without words to identify and relay emotions to ourselves and others it must feel like you are trapped.

What would it feel like to have more language, a shared set of words that correlate with emotional states and feelings you may experiencing? What if you could communicate your emotions without words or have others reflect back with words even if you can’t express them? What if there was a tool that could help guide techniques, behaviors and patterns to help teach self regulation? And what if that tool has the ability to monitor your state and identify when you have “bounced back”.

Empowering agency is what is behind MyKaleidoscope.

The potential to communicate emotional states in real-time may be the missing piece to help those with challenges navigate their emotions with more independence.