We all experience big, challenging feelings, from common emotions like uncertainty, anger, despair, and regret, to difficult experiences like the pains of comparison, burnout, and perfectionism. On today’s episode of Being Well Podcast, Forrest is joined by the wonderful author, coach, and content creator Mollie West Duffy to explore how we can accept those big feelings, learn to live alongside them, and develop tools that help us deal with them more effectively.
About Our Guest: Mollie is an expert in organizational design, development, and leadership who has helped advise and coach executives and founders at companies including Google, Casper, and LinkedIn. She’s the co-author of the bestselling book No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work, and the recently released Big Feelings: How To Be Okay When Things Are Not Okay, and is also one half of the Instagram account, @lizandmollie.
Key Topics:
- 0:00: Introduction
- 1:30: Why is Mollie’s new book called Big Feelings?
- 5:10: The useful flip side
- 6:45: How Mollie’s relationship to anger changed during the creation of this book
- 9:20: Difficult emotions as a resource and source of regulation
- 11:30: Unhelpful myths in how to deal with difficult emotions
- 16:45: Healthy responses to those myths
- 21:10: Vulnerability
- 25:50: Emotional granularity
- 27:05: Lengthening the time between trigger and response
- 30:05: Processing anxiety
- 35:25: How to relax the desire for control
- 41:45: Medication
- 44:10: Anxiety doesn’t accurately reflect risk
- 46:40: Burnout – even around things you enjoy
- 55:25: Comparing our suffering with others
- 57:05: Comparing our accomplishments with others
- 1:01:35: Recap
