Susan David - The Gift and Power of Emotional Courage

The importance of emotional agility

Brené Brown has a new podcast called Dare to Lead, where I found Susan David's episode about emotional agility. She candidly shares insight into the way we deal with our emotions as a society and how that shapes everything in our lives - our actions, careers, relationships, health and happiness. She explains how forced positivity can be toxic and explains why all emotions need to be fully felt, as this is the cornerstone to building resilience, thriving and the path to true authentic happiness.

When we push aside normal emotions to embrace false positivity, we lose our capacity to develop skills to deal with the world as it is.

As I learned early on from Dr Sarno's book Healing Back Pain, and later in much more detail from Nicole Sachs' JournalSpeak work, emotional repression leads to chronic conditions and serious health problems. During the podcast interview with Brené, Susan recalls the story of a teacher giving her a blank journal and asking her to write her uncensored truth about what she was feeling after the death of her father, so naturally, my ears pricked up even more and I just had to make space for this fabulous woman of wisdom here!

Both the TED Talk video above and the podcast are really moving, funny and potentially life-changing for anyone suppressing their real feelings. She challenges a culture that prizes positivity over emotional truth and discusses the powerful strategies of emotional agility. 

I thought this was such a powerful message, delivered so beautifully, that it should be included here.

Let me know what you think!

Sawubona x

Check out my Recovery Journey Roadmap if you would like more details about exactly how I became chronic pain free by addressing my repressed emotions. Reach out with any questions. Follow me on Facebook or Instagram for more resources and daily updates on everything chronic recovery, or scroll down for more resources.