10 Tips for Promoting Emotional Integration in the Military

There is a recognized need for military service members to effectively regulate their emotions, especially when considering the extreme stressors of deployment and combat. Overreliance on suppression or other strategies that minimize the expression of emotions are associated with poor health outcomes. Research suggests that Emotional Integration training will help build self-awareness, regulatory skill, and an overall healthier relationship with emotions. Emotional Integration involves viewing emotions as information and subsequently being able to make an autonomous choice on how to respond to that information. We propose 10 tips to prepare our service members to better utilize their emotions and have healthier outcomes.