I’m here with someone whose work I really, really appreciate. I’m here with Dr. Susan David, who is one of the world’s leading management thinkers and an award-winning Harvard Medical School psychologist. I became familiar with her through her book, Emotional Agility, which describes the psychological skills that are critical to thriving in times of complexity and change. And we get into a lot of the nuance of this in this episode.
I feel her work is really important, especially right now. And today, we go through everything from what emotional agility is, and why it’s so important. She gives strategies for being emotionally healthy in an uncertain world and why discomfort is the price of admission in a meaningful life. We also talk about the importance of values, how to name and cultivate them, parenting strategies and how we can help pass these same skills onto our children from a young age.
Episode Highlights With Dr. Susan David
- What emotional agility is at a basic level and why it’s so important
- Strategies for being emotionally healthy in an uncertain world
- How we become fused with our stories about events and assign a causal relationship
- A simple way to start putting space between stimulus and response
- The problem with the modern happiness movement
- Why words like “I am” and “because” are so powerful and how to be aware of their power
- What thought blaming is
- Type 1 vs Type 2 thoughts and how to differentiate them
- Emotional superpowers that help create the distance between stimulus and response
- Why discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life
- Why forced positivity is an avoidant coping mechanism and what to try instead
- The importance of values and how to know and cultivate them
- How emotions are signposts and what these tell us about our values
- Responsiveness vs reactiveness to an emotion
- What emotional contagion is and how it affects our lives
- Why true happiness is a byproduct of living a life that feels concordant with values, not of chasing happiness
- Reasons to be aware of “I will be happy when” thoughts and emotions
- Why forcing children to share or have empathy backfires and what to do instead
- Ways to help our children (and ourselves) to develop this inner core
- How emotional granularity and labeling emotions accurately is helpful
Resources We Mention
- The Gift and Power of Emotional Courage – Ted Talk
- Emotional Agility by Susan David
- Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
- Emotional Agility Quiz
More From Wellness Mama
- 281: Building Resiliency, Mindset and Doing the Impossible With Joel Runyon
- 230: Chalene Johnson on How to Protect Your Mindset & Live a Balanced Life
- 19 Journal Prompts to Build a Healthy Mindset
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