What is emotional regulation and how does one regulate?

What is the difference between emotional regulation and denying or stuffing emotions, or even rationalizing?

Emotional regulation souns to me like, If you feel it, don't show it.

Regulate how? And with what?

Hi, can't sleep either. Wiki's definition of DYSregulation was more helpful to me: "
Emotional dysregulation (ED) is a term used in the mental health community to refer to an emotional response that is poorly modulated, and does not fall within the conventionally accepted range of emotive response. ED may be referred to as labile mood[1] or mood swings.
Possible manifestations of emotional dysregulation include angry outbursts or behavior outbursts such as destroying or throwing objects, aggression towards self or others, and threats to kill oneself. These variations usually occur in seconds to minutes or hours. Emotional dysregulation can lead to behavioral problems and can interfere with a person's social interactions and relationships at home, in school, or at place of employment.
Emotional dysregulation can be associated with an experience of early psychological trauma, brain injury, or chronic maltreatment (such as child abuse, child neglect, or institutional neglect/abuse), and associated disorders such as reactive attachment disorder.[2] Emotional dysregulation may present in people with psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and Complex post-traumatic stress disorder.[3][4] ED is also found among those with autism spectrum disorders, including Asperger syndrome.[3]"

I found this helpful from a purely academic perspective...note even Wiki page has a warning that the info need clarification by Wiki Psych dept professional or such....hope this helps? Bottom line is we are all constantly learning emotional regulation techniques depending on our interactions with the world and who we chose to interact with in it....Kind of like another academic term hard to take as something "learned" all at once and never mutates or evolves.. I mean, who's to say what a "NORMAL" regulation strategy is? Maybe just processing an emotion without damage to oneself or those surrounding? I mean it's gotta be a life-long process that every once in awhile makes you feel warm fuzzies when you've saved someone pain and aggravation by communicating upfront and honestly.... - sandy

it sounds like it is something from dbt: emotional regulation

Perhaps an analogy will shed some light on your question (or if darkness, then at least interesting darkness ). Suppose we were talking not about emotions but about riding a bicycle. The equivalent of emotional regulation would be keeping your balance and rolling down the road in the direction you wanted to go. Denying, stuffing or rationalizing would be like picking out a soft-looking place to fall and aiming for it, or hanging onto a signpost and not going anywhere.
I probably couldn't tell you (nor you tell me) how to ride a bicycle; it's something you pick up by practicing. The dbtselfhelp site that bloom3 posted the link to, offers some suggestions for practicing.