Ask HN: Best ways to catch your emotions and get back to work?

Both Ayurvedic (yogi) and Buddhist tradition put a lot of focus on this through various forms of meditation and mindfulness. The short-form that seems to work well for me and helped me through times of grief goes something like this:

1. Recognise you have an emotion. 2. Give yourself some time to observe the emotion without judgement, It is OK to feel that way. 3. Realize you can experience the emotion without having to be reactive to it. The emotion is a given, your reaction is a choice. 4. Get back to work.

Another thing I find helpful is taking some prolonged exhale breaths to help your nervous system get out of its fight/flight response: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6037091/

Well it depends what emotions you are trying to catch. Don't try too hard. If they are in the way of your work, they are likely more important than it.