[proverbialbunny]

I think what suifbwish is getting at is the more meta-physical nature of emotions. What I mean by that is one has strong vivid thought about some doom that will come or some horrible thing that happened in the past and they are strong emotions. It's easy to get caught up in them and lose the present moment. When you lose the present moment your mind can not differentiate between now and a memory, so it thinks the memory is now and responds accordingly.

Memories and emotions are not "real" in that they are not the present moment, and being able to stay grounded in the present moment while having these thoughts can help. In metaphor, it's like pinching yourself while dreaming.

What imo helps the most is realizing everything is impermanent / temporary. If you have a particularly gruesome emotion you can know you don't have to do anything, because it will go away on its own, like a rain cloud, in due time. So you can relax even while freaking out.