Pushkin

As a professor who teaches about the science of well-being, I spend a lot of time thinking,

and talking, and also podcasting about how to feel happier.

But in spite of all that, I'm not exactly happy 100% of the time.

I too still feel guilty and anxious, I get angry and sad and jealous, and with so many

responsibilities, I often feel overwhelmed and frustrated.

All this makes sense, I mean experiencing negative emotions is part of what it means

to be human.

But actually having to go through all these bad emotions, that kind of sucks.

If I'm being honest, I pretty much hate going through these negative feelings.

And so my first instinct is always to push them away.

As soon as I start to detect that I'm feeling frustrated or sad or a little pissed at someone,

I try to avoid the experience completely.

I pretend it's not happening, or distract myself, or dive into my work so I don't have

to experience that not so nice feeling.

But the science shows this isn't the smartest strategy.

There's lots and lots of evidence that suppressing and avoiding our negative sensations

is ultimately only going to make us feel worse in the long run.

So my New Year's resolution for 2022 is to stop running away from all my difficult emotions.

I want to allow and embrace and maybe even learn from the yuckyer sensations in life.

But that's easier said than done.

So I decided to call in some reinforcements.

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