# Story 3: The emotion hack that actually works at work

- **Episode:** [210](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/210.md) (2025-07-01)
- **Type:** news-roundup
- **Tags:** emotions, workplace-culture, psychology
- **Time:** 15:41–21:09 (start 941s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/210?t=941](https://truthliesandwork.com/210?t=941)

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[15:41] Al Elliott: Okay, Lee, what else have you seen, my love?
[15:43] Leanne Elliott: Has science found an actual emotion hack?
[15:47] Al Elliott: Oh, oh, go on, tell me
[15:48] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, this is about emotional regulation. You mentioned last week, Al, that we don't tend to run in the same online circles, but in my online circles, I feel like I'm seeing a post every day, if not 2 or 3, about emotional regulation. Now, I would imagine that a lot of people see those posts and go, cool, what's emotional regulation?
[16:08] Al Elliott: That's what I would do
[16:09] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, and that's a fair question. I must admit, sometimes I need to think about it. Because it's— there's so many different terms knocking around in the world, isn't there? Um, so yeah, no
[16:18] Al Elliott: Tell us, what is it?
[16:21] Leanne Elliott: So what is it? Emotional regulation, um, it's basically the ability to manage how you feel so your emotions don't take over. Um, so if you've ever snapped at somebody when you're a bit stressed or felt, um, frozen at getting bad news or just sit in existential crisis for 3 hours on the sofa, Um, that is emotional regulation, or, or not emotional regulation
[16:46] Al Elliott: Irregulation
[16:47] Leanne Elliott: Irregulation, yeah, you're not regulated. Um, so yeah, that's what it is. And if it goes on for a bit too long, it can all start to get a little bit messy, especially if it's in the workplace. And understandably, life is stressful right now. Lots of ambiguity, lots of change, lots of uncertainty. Everybody's getting a little bit wired, and with that, we might struggle to regulate our emotions So I came across a study this week that gives us a hack for this according to science
[17:14] Al Elliott: Tell me
[17:14] Leanne Elliott: So we can stay cool and calm, Al. So the study basically looked into something called cognitive reappraisal. I know, another, another fancy word. It basically means, can I think about this a bit differently?
[17:25] Al Elliott: Okay. Do you know what I mean? I'm, I'm, I'm gonna be honest, I'm slightly underwhelmed by the hack at this point, but try, try and re-whelm me
[17:34] Leanne Elliott: Okay
[17:34] Al Elliott: So if you don't like it, just don't think about it
[17:37] Leanne Elliott: So you're in a meeting, you're feeling a bit stressed, you can feel yourself starting to boil at the point that you reach over the table and slap your co-host across the face. Not cool
[17:47] Al Elliott: Oh, right
[17:48] Leanne Elliott: We need to, we need to regulate our emotions. Um, and, and the researchers say we can do this through cognitive reappraisal, thinking about things differently. So one, reframe the situation. So instead of thinking, uh, my boss is ignored me today, you'd think they might just be really busy. Or instead of thinking, I'm anxious, something must be wrong, you go, I'm anxious, this is normal, it will pass
[18:14] Al Elliott: Yeah. So if I'm at work and, uh, Barry from accounts comes over and, and he smells of sweat and he's, and he's got BO and he just like leans across me and accidentally wipes his forearm of sweat, across my forehead, I just think differently and go, well, at least I didn't get run over on the way to work this morning. Is that what we're saying, or is that—
[18:34] Leanne Elliott: It's a very specific example, but essentially yes
[18:37] Al Elliott: Right, got it. Okay
[18:39] Leanne Elliott: So anyway, the research asked people to try one of these, um, one of these techniques twice a day while they were at work. So, and that was it. No big program, apps, AI-driven anything, just Just reframing a situation, and it worked. The results found that people felt less stressed, they were calmer and more focused, they didn't snap at colleagues as frequently, and they got more done. They were more productive. And this is what was really interesting— the benefits lasted. So a month later, they were still doing better in terms of their emotional regulation. Even a short, sharp, intentional change of mindset and the way we think can have a longer-term impact. Isn't that cool?
[19:25] Al Elliott: Very cool
[19:26] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, so if you're managing a team right now, um, or just want to try and hold your shit together yourself, it could be something really, really useful to, to try. Um, I'll leave a link in the show notes to the, um, study. I'm not gonna lie, the title isn't necessarily the catchiest I've seen, so I have also written it up in English on Medium. So I'll leave the links to both of those in the show notes for you. Um, so there you go, how to emotionally regulate yourself according to science
[19:55] Al Elliott: Love it. Oh, subtitle, just think about something else
[19:59] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, reframe, reframe, reframe
[20:03] Al Elliott: Yeah. Okay, no, to be fair, serious example. I'm not talking about Sweaty Barry now. Okay, serious example. When I used to do cold, um, when I had this job I was talking about before, um, it used to be cold calling and selling advertising. Um, and I used to make a, a 100, uh, like lines on a piece of paper at the beginning of the day. And every time I got a no, I'd tick off the line
[20:20] Leanne Elliott: Mm-hmm
[20:20] Al Elliott: And that was my way of going, okay, once I get a, I reckon once I get 10 or 15 nos, I'll get a yes. And it was weird because most, I realized most of the calls that, that I want, they just weren't answering. Or so when I was looking for a yes, actually what I was getting was maybe out of every 10 calls, 3 nos. and 7 people who weren't there. And this helped me to refocus. So yeah, that was going back in 2004
[20:44] Leanne Elliott: Cognitive reappraisal
[20:44] Al Elliott: Cognitive reappraisal. Yeah, I should co-author that paper. Anyway, Leanne
[20:49] Leanne Elliott: I thought you could read the title of that paper
[20:51] Al Elliott: That's a good point
[20:53] Leanne Elliott: And that's no shade. No, no, no
[20:56] Al Elliott: You're right though. With words like that, when I see titles that got like loads of, I have to sit there, it panics me a little bit. I'm like, there's 7 words in this title and I've never heard of 6 of them
[21:05] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, I've never seen 6 of them. And the 7th word is the