Our difficult emotions aren’t just painful experiences that we need to tolerate. If we breathe into them for a moment, we’ll begin to see them as data that signposts our needs and values.
Guilt can signal to us that a recent action wasn’t aligned with the person we most want to be or that we want to make amends for a mistake.
When we show up to a difficult emotion like this, it no longer owns us. Rather, we are able to use the data our emotion provides and move courageously in the direction of our values with greater wisdom.
Susan David
Susan David, Ph.D. is one of the world’s leading management thinkers and an award-winning Harvard Medical School psychologist. Her TED Talk on the topic of emotional agility has been seen by more than 10 million people. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal and often appears on national radio and television. Learn more.
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