What Your Negative Emotions Are Trying to Tell You

45 min

Negative emotions like sadness, anger, guilt, and anxiety can feel overwhelming. But what if those uncomfortable feelings aren’t problems to fix, but signals worth listening to?

As part of our series on how to spring clean your wellbeing, Dr. Laurie revisits a conversation with Harvard Medical School psychologist Susan David, author of Emotional Agility. Together, they discuss why bottling up difficult feelings doesn’t work, why brooding can keep us stuck, and what our individual emotions are actually trying to tell us about our lives and relationships.

If you’ve ever tried to bury a bad feeling, this episode offers a more effective approach to emotional healing.

Experts Mentioned:

• Susan David, Harvard Medical School psychologist a
• Viktor Frankl, psychiatrist, neurologist, and founder of logotherapy

Resources Mentioned:

• Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life, by Susan David (2016)

Related Episodes:

• "How to Identify Your Negative Emotions"
• "Stepping Off the Path of Anxiety"
• "How to be Angry Better"
• "When Guilt is Good... and When it's Not"