Anxiety, as one of the most common psychological disorders of modern times, significantly affects the quality of an individual’s life. It manifests on cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and physical levels. As a strongly present global symptom, it also leaves consequences at sociological and economic levels. In this master’s thesis, we aimed to examine the extent to which an individual’s ability to effectively recognize and regulate their own emotions influences their experience as well as management of anxiety symptoms. With this research question, we primarily focused on testing the effectiveness of a workshop program designed to train participants in recognizing their emotional affects and developing self-regulation skills. Based on already published studies, we assumed that such an approach could significantly contribute to reducing anxiety symptoms. Although the mechanisms of anxiety are strongly linked to processes in the central nervous system, psychological factors such as patterns of emotional experience, past experiences, early socialization, and the capacity for emotion regulation also play an important role. Previous research confirms that the ability to recognize and regulate emotions contributes to lower levels of anxiety and supports greater psychological resilience. In the empirical part of the research, we therefore examined the effects of a specific program on a small but intensive sample of participants. The results of measuring anxiety before and after participation in the program showed a consistent trend of symptom improvement among participants. After completing the workshops, participants reported improvements in anxiety symptoms, greater calmness, and enhanced ability to recognize and self-regulate emotional affects. In addition to the quantitative results, the hypotheses were also supported by the phenomenological part of the research, which further highlighted the perceived differences in participants’ well-being and experience of anxiety. This confirms that the changes occurred not only at the level of measurable indicators but also in participants’ subjective experiences. The research thus confirmed all four hypotheses: that participation in the program reduces anxiety symptoms; that participants attribute the improvement to better recognition of emotional affects; to more effective recognition of bodily sensations; and to an increased capacity for emotional self-regulation. Although the results are not statistically strong due to the small sample size, they clearly indicate the potential of such therapeutic interventions as an important complement to already established clinical approaches.
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