Emotion Commotion in Trying Times: Showing Up to Pain & Accepting What Is – Susan David, Ph.D., with Dave Asprey : 709

In this episode of Bulletproof Radio, I’m excited for you to hear from my guest Susan David, Ph.D., who knows all about emotions and what to do with them. Susan challenges the prevailing attitude that we should “fix” our difficult emotions through positive thinking and chasing happiness. Instead, she teaches people how to thrive in an uncertain world.

After some hard-charging months focused on the science of coronavirus, and how to stay physically well and financially afloat during the pandemic, it’s time to put some attention on our emotional health.

“Fundamentally, the way we deal with our inner world drives everything,” Susan says. “It drives how we love and come to our relationships, how we live, how we parent and how we lead.”

Susan is an award-winning Harvard Medical School psychologist. Her bestselling book, “Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life” is based on 20 years of research and describes the psychological skills critical to thriving in times of uncertainty and change.

“At its most basic level emotional agility is about the capacity to be with ourselves,” Susan explains. “That includes our difficult thoughts and emotions and stories and past experiences in a way that's compassionate and curious and that doesn't hold us back from being the people that we most want to be. Because often we get stuck in our thoughts, our emotions and our stories, and we aren't living in a way that's intentional and values congruent and so it's about these different aspects.”

And whether we’re caught in a brooding trap or bottling up our emotions, it takes work to unpack what we’re feeling.

“For people to be healthy with themselves, with the inner worlds, these are not soft skills,” Susan says. “These are the most fundamental skills that we can have as human beings.”

So listen on to find out why trying to control what is uncontrollable wreaks havoc on our emotional health and what you can do to improve your inner landscape in spite of the world’s turmoil.

Enjoy the show! And get more resources at https://blog.daveasprey.com/category/podcasts/.

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