November 6, 2024 • 25 mins
It is National Stress Awareness Day. It’s a tremendously stressful time but there’s so much hope! Judith Moskowitz is a psychologist and Northwestern University professor who studies the unique mental and physical health effects of positive emotions. She comes on the show to break down all the ways you can embrace a positive mindset in your life today and into the future.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello Sunshine, Hey bessies, It's Wellness Wednesday. And whether you're
still recovering from the election or just navigating the messiness
of life, stress feels very real for a lot of
us right now. Psychologist and Northwestern University professor Judith Moskowitz
is here to reveal why positive thinking can actually help
us live longer lives. It's Wednesday, November six. I'm Simone
(00:25):
Boyce and.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from
Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together to
share women's stories, to laugh, learn and brighten your day.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Today's Wellness Wednesday is presented by Coliguard.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Danielle.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I don't know about you, but I have been stress
eating to get through this election cycle.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Is it throwing your mental health off too? It really is.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I kept saying I was cautiously optimistic, and then a
friend of mine said, no, I'm nauseously optimistic. And that's
truly how I feel. I'm jittery about it.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It's jittery is the exact right word, because it's this
mix of anxiety and hope and anticipation, all very powerful emotions.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And I think that's true no matter where you stand
on the political spectrum. Elections, specifically presidential elections just bring
a whirlwind of emotions, and I think a lot of
us think about what comes next the day after the election,
what now? And to me, it's like a really powerful
reminder that we're all navigating this moment together, and so
(01:33):
regardless of the stress and uncertainty, what can we focus
on that unites us and reminds us of our shared values?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
And even in these uncertain times, there is one thing
that we can control, and that is our mindset, how
we respond to it all, how we manage our emotions.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
It's so well said, and I think that's why we're
calling in an expert today, right Judith Moskowitz is a
professor at Northwestern University who studies the effects of positive
emotions during stressful times.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
She is one of the most trusted voices on the
unique mental and physical effects of positive emotions. I'm actually
really curious about this course that she created, called the
Resilience Challenge, which studies eight key skills that apparently can
cultivate positive emotions. So we're going to learn all about
it right now. Judith Moskowitz, Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Thank you, for inviting me. Welcome, Welcome, We're so happy
to have you.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Perfect timing because it is International Stress Awareness Day, but
we honestly didn't even need that holiday designation because it's
the day after the election, So I think everybody understands
what stress feels like. Right now, we are going to
get into the research backed ways that we can deal
with stress, but before we do, i'd love to hear
how you got involved in this field in the first place.
(02:48):
Will you tell us about your early days as a
stress and coping researcher.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Absolutely, So I'm trained as a social psychologist and mixper
cheeses and stress and co and emotion. And early on,
right after I got my degree, I was doing my
post doc and we were studying men caring for their
partners with AIDS. So this was the early to mid
nineteen nineties, so before AIDS was a treatable illness and
(03:16):
it was essentially terminal, and we were interviewing caregivers throughout
the caregiving and the bereavement process, so we were asking
them what was stressful about caregiving or about bereavement, and
then how they were coping with that. So we were
very focused on what was stressful about what they were experiencing,
(03:37):
and you know, they were absolutely depressed and upset and sad,
and you can imagine since it's some of the most
extreme stress that humans experience. But shortly after we started
the study and we were ending the interview with what's
stressful and how did you cope with it? And they said, well,
you're not asking us about the good things. And we were,
(03:59):
you know, stress research, and we're like, what do you
mean the good things? Like, well, there are good things
happening too. This is truly awful, and there are good
things happening, and can we please talk about those? So
we started asking about the good things that were happening.
We added a question and we said, tell us something
positive and meaningful that happened in the past week to
(04:19):
help you get through a day. And you know, we
had hundreds of interviews where we asked this question, and
almost every single one, even if their partner had just died,
they could tell us something positive. And it was often
something really small, like you know, a beautiful sunset, or
sometimes it was you know, I was able to make
my partner a meal he enjoyed. So that binding sort
(04:42):
of set me on the path of asking questions about
positive emotions of people experiencing different types of stress. And secondly,
as I realized that positive emotions were important and helpful,
I thought, well, we should design a program to help
people have more positive so that they can cope better
with whatever stress they're coping with. So that set me
(05:05):
on this path of teaching different groups the sort of
toolbox of skills to help them have more positive emotion
which helps them cope better with all kinds of life stress.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
One of my favorite definitions of wisdom is being able
to hold two opposite truths at one time. And when
I was reading your work, you talk about that idea
so often, about holding both the positive and the negative
side by side. How do you think we can all
be honing that skill of holding two opposite truths at
(05:39):
one time.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
So thank you for picking up on that, And it's
something that I always try to reiterate about our program,
because this is not pretend everything's great and deny the
negative stuff and just put on a happy face and
it'll all be fine. So that is absolutely not what
we're doing. But the important thing is to first acknowledge
that things are hard, and things are stressful, and negative
(06:03):
emotions are part of the human condition. In what we're
experiencing right now really common. So I think everyone, no
matter where they are in the political spectrum, is experiencing
some pretty high levels of negative emotion at the moment.
And what we know from our research is that you
can experience those high levels of negative emotion, the anxiety,
(06:25):
the stress, the sadness, the fear, all those the disappointment,
the frustration, you know, all all forms of negative emotion.
When you experience that, you can also have moments of
positive emotion. And what we try to teach people is
ways they can sort of feel those positive feelings even
(06:46):
when things are really challenging.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
What are some of those ways?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Because I've heard you say that you're a natural positive reappraiser,
and I've never heard that term, and I was thinking
to myself, Am I a positive re appraiser? I think
I also fall into that bucket, But I don't know
if I can sort of qualify or quantify what I'm doing.
It's sort of a natural inclination. What can we actually
(07:11):
be doing?
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Yeah, so positive reappraisal is part of our package of
you know, we have like eight to ten skills depending
on who we're working with. And positive reappraisal is basically
reframing a situation in a more positive way.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
It doesn't mean saying, Okay, it's not bad.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
So the reappraisal of you know, our political climate right
now could be you know, this is really hard, and
your initial interpretation of it can be this is election,
this is a disaster, everyone's.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Horrible, right.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
That could be your initial appraisal, and your reappraisal of
that could be I am so much more aware of
politics now and what's important to me in a political
race than I ever have before. Let something good that
can come out of a situation, or my favorite positive
reappraisal is could be worse.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
You can give me any situation.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
I can be like, oh, I can imagine how this
could be so much worse, and it's not that bad.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
So I've positively reappraised it. So that's just one of
the skills that we teach.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
So when we talk about the power of positivity, it's
such a phrase, and I love alliteration, I love wordplay,
but there really is a.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Power in it.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
And your research reveals what happens in our bodies when
we practice it.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
What does happen in our bodies.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
When you're experiencing stress of any kind, you have a
very natural and mostly adaptive stress response in your body, right,
So your heart rate increases, your palm sweat, your blood
pressure goes up, I mean, basically to prepare you to
run away or fight. So one of those sort of
evolutionarily adaptive responses that were good when we were running
(09:00):
from tigers. But our stress is very different today, and
chronic activation of that stress response can have a whole
host of negative physical effects from heart disease like and
greater susceptibility to infection. So what practicing some sort of
stress reduction skills like you know, our program or others,
(09:22):
it helps bring down that stress response, even if it's
just for a moment of respite. The experience of a
positive emotion gives you a momentary sort of a breather
to then sort of marshal yourself to then continue to
cope with whatever it is you're coping with.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
We'll be right back with Judith Moscowitz. Don't go anywhere,
and we're back.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
So you mentioned that you've don developed a course at
Northwestern that uses eight skills to increase positivity. I know
that you've walked us through a couple of them. I
thought it was interesting that one of the tips is
to recognize a positive event each day and then savor
that positive event by logging it in a journal or
telling someone about it. How is positivity different when experienced
(10:19):
in the context of community.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Oh, so this is great. So you just talked about
our first two skills. Usually the first two so noticing
positive events and savoring them.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
And I think the savoring.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Part is the one that can really be practiced easily
in communities. So with other people, you can notice that, oh,
the sun's out today, isn't it lovely? And you can
experience that yourself. You can think about it later just
on your own, you can write it in your own journal,
but when you share it with someone else, then they
get to experience that positive event as well. When I'm
(10:53):
talking to groups of people, I often have them notice
a positive event or come up with something positive that's
happened to them in the past week, and then tell
their neighbor. And the room just rrupts because not only
are you experiencing your own positive event, but you get
to hear about theirs as well.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
So that's all the more powerful.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, I was just thinking that as you share a
positive event, it's going to give someone else permission to
do the same thing. I actually really love this list
of eight tips that can help us use positive emotions
to build resilience. Well, you just list out all eight
of them for us, I think, particularly right now in
this moment that we're in, it.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Would be super helpful for our bright side besties.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
So positive events and savoring were the first two that
we just talked about. The third one we teach was gratitude,
but it could be gratitude for you know, nature or God,
if that's part of your spiritual belief system, or good
things in your life you're grateful for. Our fourth skill
is mindful awareness. It's more about being aware of your
(11:55):
thoughts and feelings and experiences in the moment, rather than
rehashing everything that just happened to you or rehearsing what
you're going to say next. It's really living in the
moment and not judging yourself for whatever you're experiencing. And
then we also talk about sort of mindful meditation as
part of that, So that's number four. Number five is
(12:17):
positive reappraisal, which we've already discussed sort of reframing something.
The sixth skill self compassion. We tend to be very
hard on ourselves. No matter who you are, there's that
voice in your head telling you what you're doing wrong
or how you're not doing a good job. And the
way we sort of enter into teaching self compassion is
to imagine that your good friend or a loved one,
(12:41):
another loved one was talking to themselves in this really
negative way. What would you say to them? You'd say,
you know, you're being too hard on yourself. You're only human.
We're all struggling right now. Everyone's struggling in some way.
Don't be so hard on yourself. So self compassion, I think,
is a really powerful. One of these skills for number
(13:01):
seven is noticing personal strengths. When we're experiencing something stressful
in our lives, we can often be quick to notice
our flaws and much slower to notice what strengths we
have or what strengths we might be able to bring
to a situation. We actually will give our participants a
list of strengths good qualities that someone might have, and
(13:23):
it's like, which of these apply to you, right, and
then they can go through and you go, you know,
I am I'm struggling right now, I'm having a really
hard time, and I'm a really good friend, or I
have a great sense of humor.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Right.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
It sort of takes you out of the immediate situation
where you might be kind of spiraling into all the
things you're doing wrong, and be like, no, put the
brakes on that, Actually, there are good things about me,
and I do have strengths that I can bring to
any situation.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
And then our final one.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Another one of my favorites is sort of attainable goals,
and this is based on research that even the perception
of progress, like you don't have to reach the goal,
but just feeling like you're making progress towards the goal
helps you have more positive emotion, right, and helps you
stay engaged in the sort of coping process. So those
are the eight that are sort of in the current iteration.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Of the program.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
They're great, They're fantastic.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Thank you so much for sharing.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
One of the reasons we offer this array of skills,
we sometimes call it a buffet of skills, this whole
menu of things. It's not that you have to practice
all eight of these to get any benefit, right. Instead,
we try to encourage people to like, try each one,
even if you think you're gonna hate it, Just try
it for a week and see if it's maybe the
(14:39):
thing that'll work for you. Another thing about this is
that it's not just you go through the whatever the
five or six weeks of the program, and you learn
the skills and you're done.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
That is absolutely not what it is.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
It is more about hear some skills, figure out which
ones you like, and then make them a habit. It's
like physical activity. It is you've got to keep doing it.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
I was just thinking about the connection between this and fitness.
This feels like a positivity workout to me, where you're
waking up every day and choosing to do two to
three exercises that are going to sharpen and strengthen that
positivity muscle. And similarly to working out, I find that
I like, for example, today I only had time for
a fifteen minute workout. I'm so glad that I got
(15:20):
the fifteen minutes in as opposed to nothing. You know,
it makes a big difference just working with the time
that you have.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Right, that's also a positive reappraisal. By the way, thank you,
I get to do my full workout.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
I've been listening. I'm that's hilarious. But I got fifteen
minutes in. Yeah, good, very good.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
So I don't know. If I have like a hard
time with morning routines, I like made it a point
to try and fix that.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I still have trouble with it.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
But what I do find with habits is like there
are tools to lean on. So when you feel yourself go,
like even if you're not doing a daily gratitude journal,
when you feel yourself veering negative, you can more easily
sort of get back to neutral.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
I think that's true. Or notice the negative, acknowledge it.
Say I'm having a really hard time right now, I'm
feeling really sad, right, maybe there's something I can do
to bring a little more positive emotion into my day.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Well, we wanted to ask you about that because you
also you make a point to acknowledge that negative emotions
can be beneficial. How do we make the most of
them and also not let them consume us?
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Right? So, I mean this gets more into sort of
the clinical realm for sure.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
So we love clinical here talk. I mean, talk to
your therapist about this.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
But from my perspective as sort of an emotions researcher,
it's acknowledging that emotions are functional, and you know, when
you're feeling really anxious, it means there's something in your
life that needs attention, So try to figure out where
that anxiety, where that.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Anxious feeling is coming from.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Or if you're feeling really sad, maybe it's a sign
that something's not working and you need to let go.
Notice the emotions. Part of the program that isn't an
explicit skill, but we try to include is understanding that
it's not just heavy or sad or anxious or calm,
but there's a whole array of emotions that can be
(17:18):
really nuanced in terms of how positive or negative they are,
and how sort of high activation low activation they are.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
So something like like when I talk.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
About anxiety or terror, are that those are high activation
or high high activation negative valence emotions, and then there's
low activation negative emotions, so low activation is more like sadness.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
So it's understanding your emotions.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
I think it's important to acknowledge them and the negative
emotions and also understand that you're not just one emotion
at any given time. So I think it's the un
understanding of the mix and the ability to know that
you can bring more positive emotion into your life if
you want to sort of balance out the negative.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
We have to take a quick break, but we'll be
right back with Judith Moscowitz. And we're back with Judith Moscowitz.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Everyone always tells us to sit with our emotions, but
I find that advice kind of frustrating because it's like,
what does that even mean? Yeah, I'm already sitting down
and I'm feeling sad, so I'm here, I'm doing it.
I found that writing is a great tool for me
personally in terms of sitting with like I need an activity,
But as an emotions researcher, what is the best way
(18:44):
to sit with our emotions?
Speaker 4 (18:46):
That's a brilliant example to write them down. What I
was just saying about sort of acknowledging them. I think
so many people are used to feeling whatever they're feeling,
Like it's we're a.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Feeling the negative emotions, and there's.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
All the societal pushtages be happy, you'll live longer, you'll
be healthier, people will.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Like you more.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Just be happy and really sort of vilifying the negative emotions.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Yeah, and that's that doesn't do anyone any good.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Honestly, it's yeah, if you're feeling some sort of negative emotion,
write about it, just acknowledge it. Label it is really
helpful as well, I'm feeling what is this feeling that
I'm feeling, right? And oh, this is you know, a
mix of sadness and frustration that you know, Like, I
think those labels can be really helpful, and it's another
(19:39):
way to sit with your emotions, and certainly writing them
out helps you understand sort of the nuances of what's
going on and might help you find some space and
snuggle up alongside those negative emotions and know that they're
not the only things you can experience.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Right. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I also noticed something subtle that you did earlier when
describing I think you are describing how to reframe and
instead of using the word butt in a sentence, used
and And I think that's a big one too, being
able to say I am feeling this and I am
also this. Those slight language shifts are very powerful.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yes, and I'm glad I said it that way. I
always catch that. But that's great.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Yes, it's an and not a butt or not really.
Instead of we're not replacing the negative emotions in our lives,
we're making space for the positive alongside them.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yes. Well, speaking of word choice, we noticed that you
use a term reservoir of positive emotions. I love imagery
when I'm trying to understand or learn something new, So
I really like that. The reservoir makes me think of
like a big mass of water of all the positivity.
How can someone build that reservoir?
Speaker 3 (20:56):
I also love that language.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
And some of this insight really came to me during
the pandemic, when I felt like, you know, we were
all doing with the pandemic, and it kept going, and
it kept going, and although we felt like maybe we
were back to our regular lives, when anything stressful would happen,
it was like there was no buffer, right, There was
no reservoir, right. So I think through practicing these skills,
(21:20):
it can sort of help you build up your reserves
or your reservoir or your buffer against the whatever you
have to cope with next, right, the next stressful thing
that comes, because when you're running low on those reserves
and something happens, you've got no gas in the tank
to then continue to sort of cope with the stress.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
What advice would you give to people who want to
stay politically informed, politically engaged, and don't want to sacrifice
their mental well being or like go into any of
those negative emotions.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Yeah, it's the way you said. Yeah, it's so challenging.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Yeah, this is like this, you know, giving myself advice here.
There's something about the way we tend to stay politically informed.
So we're on social media, we're scrolling the news, we're
doom scrolling as we think about it, and something about
that gives us a feeling of control, right, just knowing
about it. If I see the latest falls, if I
(22:27):
see the latest predictions, then I'll feel better. But it
somehow doesn't magically work that way. What I try to
do is stay informed and then also have other things
that sort of bring me joy in my life.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Right, I do have a question for you. Have you
found in your research that there's a link between purpose
and positivity, because I think that a lot of people
find that activism or you know, expressing political attitudes and
beliefs through purposeful behavior does generate some positive emotions for them.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Yeah, there is absolutely a link between positive emotion and
sort of sense of meaning and purpose. They're not the
same thing, but they are absolutely related. And you see
that people who have a sense of meaning or have
a way to engage in activities that bring them a
lot of meaning and purpose. They will have more positive
(23:24):
emotion and more sort of overall well being. So I
think it's a great way to think about political engagement
that if that brings you meaning to be engaged and
to fight for the causes that you believe.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
In, it's going to increase your wellbeing.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
And it's also going to increase positive emotion, which is
sort of a subset of overall well being.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I think this has been really positive. We so appreciate
your time. Thank you for joining us on the right side.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Judith, thank you so much. I've really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Judith Moskowitz is a professor at Northwestern University who studies
the mental and physical health effects of positive emotion during
times of stress.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
That's it for today's show.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Tomorrow, we're celebrating Hello Sunshine's brand new wine Drop of
Sunshine with Master Somoyer at Jillian Balance Plus. She'll share
the ultimate holiday wine pairing guide to make your festivities unforgettable.
Thank you to our partners at Coligard. The one of
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(24:38):
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Speaker 1 (24:59):
Join the com using hashtag the bright Side and connect
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feel free to tag us at Simone Voice and at
Danielle Robe.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
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Speaker 1 (25:19):
See you tomorrow, folks, Keep looking on the bright side.
Hello Sunshine, Hey bessies, It's Wellness Wednesday. And whether you're
still recovering from the election or just navigating the messiness
of life, stress feels very real for a lot of
us right now. Psychologist and Northwestern University professor Judith Moskowitz
is here to reveal why positive thinking can actually help
us live longer lives. It's Wednesday, November six. I'm Simone
(00:25):
Boyce and.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from
Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together to
share women's stories, to laugh, learn and brighten your day.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Today's Wellness Wednesday is presented by Coliguard.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Danielle.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I don't know about you, but I have been stress
eating to get through this election cycle.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Is it throwing your mental health off too? It really is.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I kept saying I was cautiously optimistic, and then a
friend of mine said, no, I'm nauseously optimistic. And that's
truly how I feel. I'm jittery about it.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It's jittery is the exact right word, because it's this
mix of anxiety and hope and anticipation, all very powerful emotions.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And I think that's true no matter where you stand
on the political spectrum. Elections, specifically presidential elections just bring
a whirlwind of emotions, and I think a lot of
us think about what comes next the day after the election,
what now? And to me, it's like a really powerful
reminder that we're all navigating this moment together, and so
(01:33):
regardless of the stress and uncertainty, what can we focus
on that unites us and reminds us of our shared values?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
And even in these uncertain times, there is one thing
that we can control, and that is our mindset, how
we respond to it all, how we manage our emotions.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
It's so well said, and I think that's why we're
calling in an expert today, right Judith Moskowitz is a
professor at Northwestern University who studies the effects of positive
emotions during stressful times.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
She is one of the most trusted voices on the
unique mental and physical effects of positive emotions. I'm actually
really curious about this course that she created, called the
Resilience Challenge, which studies eight key skills that apparently can
cultivate positive emotions. So we're going to learn all about
it right now. Judith Moskowitz, Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Thank you, for inviting me. Welcome, Welcome, We're so happy
to have you.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Perfect timing because it is International Stress Awareness Day, but
we honestly didn't even need that holiday designation because it's
the day after the election, So I think everybody understands
what stress feels like. Right now, we are going to
get into the research backed ways that we can deal
with stress, but before we do, i'd love to hear
how you got involved in this field in the first place.
(02:48):
Will you tell us about your early days as a
stress and coping researcher.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Absolutely, So I'm trained as a social psychologist and mixper
cheeses and stress and co and emotion. And early on,
right after I got my degree, I was doing my
post doc and we were studying men caring for their
partners with AIDS. So this was the early to mid
nineteen nineties, so before AIDS was a treatable illness and
(03:16):
it was essentially terminal, and we were interviewing caregivers throughout
the caregiving and the bereavement process, so we were asking
them what was stressful about caregiving or about bereavement, and
then how they were coping with that. So we were
very focused on what was stressful about what they were experiencing,
(03:37):
and you know, they were absolutely depressed and upset and sad,
and you can imagine since it's some of the most
extreme stress that humans experience. But shortly after we started
the study and we were ending the interview with what's
stressful and how did you cope with it? And they said, well,
you're not asking us about the good things. And we were,
(03:59):
you know, stress research, and we're like, what do you
mean the good things? Like, well, there are good things
happening too. This is truly awful, and there are good
things happening, and can we please talk about those? So
we started asking about the good things that were happening.
We added a question and we said, tell us something
positive and meaningful that happened in the past week to
(04:19):
help you get through a day. And you know, we
had hundreds of interviews where we asked this question, and
almost every single one, even if their partner had just died,
they could tell us something positive. And it was often
something really small, like you know, a beautiful sunset, or
sometimes it was you know, I was able to make
my partner a meal he enjoyed. So that binding sort
(04:42):
of set me on the path of asking questions about
positive emotions of people experiencing different types of stress. And secondly,
as I realized that positive emotions were important and helpful,
I thought, well, we should design a program to help
people have more positive so that they can cope better
with whatever stress they're coping with. So that set me
(05:05):
on this path of teaching different groups the sort of
toolbox of skills to help them have more positive emotion
which helps them cope better with all kinds of life stress.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
One of my favorite definitions of wisdom is being able
to hold two opposite truths at one time. And when
I was reading your work, you talk about that idea
so often, about holding both the positive and the negative
side by side. How do you think we can all
be honing that skill of holding two opposite truths at
(05:39):
one time.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
So thank you for picking up on that, And it's
something that I always try to reiterate about our program,
because this is not pretend everything's great and deny the
negative stuff and just put on a happy face and
it'll all be fine. So that is absolutely not what
we're doing. But the important thing is to first acknowledge
that things are hard, and things are stressful, and negative
(06:03):
emotions are part of the human condition. In what we're
experiencing right now really common. So I think everyone, no
matter where they are in the political spectrum, is experiencing
some pretty high levels of negative emotion at the moment.
And what we know from our research is that you
can experience those high levels of negative emotion, the anxiety,
(06:25):
the stress, the sadness, the fear, all those the disappointment,
the frustration, you know, all all forms of negative emotion.
When you experience that, you can also have moments of
positive emotion. And what we try to teach people is
ways they can sort of feel those positive feelings even
(06:46):
when things are really challenging.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
What are some of those ways?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Because I've heard you say that you're a natural positive reappraiser,
and I've never heard that term, and I was thinking
to myself, Am I a positive re appraiser? I think
I also fall into that bucket, But I don't know
if I can sort of qualify or quantify what I'm doing.
It's sort of a natural inclination. What can we actually
(07:11):
be doing?
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Yeah, so positive reappraisal is part of our package of
you know, we have like eight to ten skills depending
on who we're working with. And positive reappraisal is basically
reframing a situation in a more positive way.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
It doesn't mean saying, Okay, it's not bad.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
So the reappraisal of you know, our political climate right
now could be you know, this is really hard, and
your initial interpretation of it can be this is election,
this is a disaster, everyone's.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Horrible, right.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
That could be your initial appraisal, and your reappraisal of
that could be I am so much more aware of
politics now and what's important to me in a political
race than I ever have before. Let something good that
can come out of a situation, or my favorite positive
reappraisal is could be worse.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
You can give me any situation.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
I can be like, oh, I can imagine how this
could be so much worse, and it's not that bad.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
So I've positively reappraised it. So that's just one of
the skills that we teach.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
So when we talk about the power of positivity, it's
such a phrase, and I love alliteration, I love wordplay,
but there really is a.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Power in it.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
And your research reveals what happens in our bodies when
we practice it.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
What does happen in our bodies.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
When you're experiencing stress of any kind, you have a
very natural and mostly adaptive stress response in your body, right,
So your heart rate increases, your palm sweat, your blood
pressure goes up, I mean, basically to prepare you to
run away or fight. So one of those sort of
evolutionarily adaptive responses that were good when we were running
(09:00):
from tigers. But our stress is very different today, and
chronic activation of that stress response can have a whole
host of negative physical effects from heart disease like and
greater susceptibility to infection. So what practicing some sort of
stress reduction skills like you know, our program or others,
(09:22):
it helps bring down that stress response, even if it's
just for a moment of respite. The experience of a
positive emotion gives you a momentary sort of a breather
to then sort of marshal yourself to then continue to
cope with whatever it is you're coping with.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
We'll be right back with Judith Moscowitz. Don't go anywhere,
and we're back.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
So you mentioned that you've don developed a course at
Northwestern that uses eight skills to increase positivity. I know
that you've walked us through a couple of them. I
thought it was interesting that one of the tips is
to recognize a positive event each day and then savor
that positive event by logging it in a journal or
telling someone about it. How is positivity different when experienced
(10:19):
in the context of community.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Oh, so this is great. So you just talked about
our first two skills. Usually the first two so noticing
positive events and savoring them.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
And I think the savoring.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Part is the one that can really be practiced easily
in communities. So with other people, you can notice that, oh,
the sun's out today, isn't it lovely? And you can
experience that yourself. You can think about it later just
on your own, you can write it in your own journal,
but when you share it with someone else, then they
get to experience that positive event as well. When I'm
(10:53):
talking to groups of people, I often have them notice
a positive event or come up with something positive that's
happened to them in the past week, and then tell
their neighbor. And the room just rrupts because not only
are you experiencing your own positive event, but you get
to hear about theirs as well.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
So that's all the more powerful.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, I was just thinking that as you share a
positive event, it's going to give someone else permission to
do the same thing. I actually really love this list
of eight tips that can help us use positive emotions
to build resilience. Well, you just list out all eight
of them for us, I think, particularly right now in
this moment that we're in, it.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Would be super helpful for our bright side besties.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
So positive events and savoring were the first two that
we just talked about. The third one we teach was gratitude,
but it could be gratitude for you know, nature or God,
if that's part of your spiritual belief system, or good
things in your life you're grateful for. Our fourth skill
is mindful awareness. It's more about being aware of your
(11:55):
thoughts and feelings and experiences in the moment, rather than
rehashing everything that just happened to you or rehearsing what
you're going to say next. It's really living in the
moment and not judging yourself for whatever you're experiencing. And
then we also talk about sort of mindful meditation as
part of that, So that's number four. Number five is
(12:17):
positive reappraisal, which we've already discussed sort of reframing something.
The sixth skill self compassion. We tend to be very
hard on ourselves. No matter who you are, there's that
voice in your head telling you what you're doing wrong
or how you're not doing a good job. And the
way we sort of enter into teaching self compassion is
to imagine that your good friend or a loved one,
(12:41):
another loved one was talking to themselves in this really
negative way. What would you say to them? You'd say,
you know, you're being too hard on yourself. You're only human.
We're all struggling right now. Everyone's struggling in some way.
Don't be so hard on yourself. So self compassion, I think,
is a really powerful. One of these skills for number
(13:01):
seven is noticing personal strengths. When we're experiencing something stressful
in our lives, we can often be quick to notice
our flaws and much slower to notice what strengths we
have or what strengths we might be able to bring
to a situation. We actually will give our participants a
list of strengths good qualities that someone might have, and
(13:23):
it's like, which of these apply to you, right, and
then they can go through and you go, you know,
I am I'm struggling right now, I'm having a really
hard time, and I'm a really good friend, or I
have a great sense of humor.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Right.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
It sort of takes you out of the immediate situation
where you might be kind of spiraling into all the
things you're doing wrong, and be like, no, put the
brakes on that, Actually, there are good things about me,
and I do have strengths that I can bring to
any situation.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
And then our final one.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Another one of my favorites is sort of attainable goals,
and this is based on research that even the perception
of progress, like you don't have to reach the goal,
but just feeling like you're making progress towards the goal
helps you have more positive emotion, right, and helps you
stay engaged in the sort of coping process. So those
are the eight that are sort of in the current iteration.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Of the program.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
They're great, They're fantastic.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Thank you so much for sharing.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
One of the reasons we offer this array of skills,
we sometimes call it a buffet of skills, this whole
menu of things. It's not that you have to practice
all eight of these to get any benefit, right. Instead,
we try to encourage people to like, try each one,
even if you think you're gonna hate it, Just try
it for a week and see if it's maybe the
(14:39):
thing that'll work for you. Another thing about this is
that it's not just you go through the whatever the
five or six weeks of the program, and you learn
the skills and you're done.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
That is absolutely not what it is.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
It is more about hear some skills, figure out which
ones you like, and then make them a habit. It's
like physical activity. It is you've got to keep doing it.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
I was just thinking about the connection between this and fitness.
This feels like a positivity workout to me, where you're
waking up every day and choosing to do two to
three exercises that are going to sharpen and strengthen that
positivity muscle. And similarly to working out, I find that
I like, for example, today I only had time for
a fifteen minute workout. I'm so glad that I got
(15:20):
the fifteen minutes in as opposed to nothing. You know,
it makes a big difference just working with the time
that you have.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Right, that's also a positive reappraisal. By the way, thank you,
I get to do my full workout.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
I've been listening. I'm that's hilarious. But I got fifteen
minutes in. Yeah, good, very good.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
So I don't know. If I have like a hard
time with morning routines, I like made it a point
to try and fix that.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I still have trouble with it.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
But what I do find with habits is like there
are tools to lean on. So when you feel yourself go,
like even if you're not doing a daily gratitude journal,
when you feel yourself veering negative, you can more easily
sort of get back to neutral.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
I think that's true. Or notice the negative, acknowledge it.
Say I'm having a really hard time right now, I'm
feeling really sad, right, maybe there's something I can do
to bring a little more positive emotion into my day.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Well, we wanted to ask you about that because you
also you make a point to acknowledge that negative emotions
can be beneficial. How do we make the most of
them and also not let them consume us?
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Right? So, I mean this gets more into sort of
the clinical realm for sure.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
So we love clinical here talk. I mean, talk to
your therapist about this.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
But from my perspective as sort of an emotions researcher,
it's acknowledging that emotions are functional, and you know, when
you're feeling really anxious, it means there's something in your
life that needs attention, So try to figure out where
that anxiety, where that.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Anxious feeling is coming from.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Or if you're feeling really sad, maybe it's a sign
that something's not working and you need to let go.
Notice the emotions. Part of the program that isn't an
explicit skill, but we try to include is understanding that
it's not just heavy or sad or anxious or calm,
but there's a whole array of emotions that can be
(17:18):
really nuanced in terms of how positive or negative they are,
and how sort of high activation low activation they are.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
So something like like when I talk.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
About anxiety or terror, are that those are high activation
or high high activation negative valence emotions, and then there's
low activation negative emotions, so low activation is more like sadness.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
So it's understanding your emotions.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
I think it's important to acknowledge them and the negative
emotions and also understand that you're not just one emotion
at any given time. So I think it's the un
understanding of the mix and the ability to know that
you can bring more positive emotion into your life if
you want to sort of balance out the negative.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
We have to take a quick break, but we'll be
right back with Judith Moscowitz. And we're back with Judith Moscowitz.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Everyone always tells us to sit with our emotions, but
I find that advice kind of frustrating because it's like,
what does that even mean? Yeah, I'm already sitting down
and I'm feeling sad, so I'm here, I'm doing it.
I found that writing is a great tool for me
personally in terms of sitting with like I need an activity,
But as an emotions researcher, what is the best way
(18:44):
to sit with our emotions?
Speaker 4 (18:46):
That's a brilliant example to write them down. What I
was just saying about sort of acknowledging them. I think
so many people are used to feeling whatever they're feeling,
Like it's we're a.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Feeling the negative emotions, and there's.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
All the societal pushtages be happy, you'll live longer, you'll
be healthier, people will.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Like you more.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Just be happy and really sort of vilifying the negative emotions.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Yeah, and that's that doesn't do anyone any good.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Honestly, it's yeah, if you're feeling some sort of negative emotion,
write about it, just acknowledge it. Label it is really
helpful as well, I'm feeling what is this feeling that
I'm feeling, right? And oh, this is you know, a
mix of sadness and frustration that you know, Like, I
think those labels can be really helpful, and it's another
(19:39):
way to sit with your emotions, and certainly writing them
out helps you understand sort of the nuances of what's
going on and might help you find some space and
snuggle up alongside those negative emotions and know that they're
not the only things you can experience.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Right. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I also noticed something subtle that you did earlier when
describing I think you are describing how to reframe and
instead of using the word butt in a sentence, used
and And I think that's a big one too, being
able to say I am feeling this and I am
also this. Those slight language shifts are very powerful.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yes, and I'm glad I said it that way. I
always catch that. But that's great.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Yes, it's an and not a butt or not really.
Instead of we're not replacing the negative emotions in our lives,
we're making space for the positive alongside them.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yes. Well, speaking of word choice, we noticed that you
use a term reservoir of positive emotions. I love imagery
when I'm trying to understand or learn something new, So
I really like that. The reservoir makes me think of
like a big mass of water of all the positivity.
How can someone build that reservoir?
Speaker 3 (20:56):
I also love that language.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
And some of this insight really came to me during
the pandemic, when I felt like, you know, we were
all doing with the pandemic, and it kept going, and
it kept going, and although we felt like maybe we
were back to our regular lives, when anything stressful would happen,
it was like there was no buffer, right, There was
no reservoir, right. So I think through practicing these skills,
(21:20):
it can sort of help you build up your reserves
or your reservoir or your buffer against the whatever you
have to cope with next, right, the next stressful thing
that comes, because when you're running low on those reserves
and something happens, you've got no gas in the tank
to then continue to sort of cope with the stress.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
What advice would you give to people who want to
stay politically informed, politically engaged, and don't want to sacrifice
their mental well being or like go into any of
those negative emotions.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Yeah, it's the way you said. Yeah, it's so challenging.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Yeah, this is like this, you know, giving myself advice here.
There's something about the way we tend to stay politically informed.
So we're on social media, we're scrolling the news, we're
doom scrolling as we think about it, and something about
that gives us a feeling of control, right, just knowing
about it. If I see the latest falls, if I
(22:27):
see the latest predictions, then I'll feel better. But it
somehow doesn't magically work that way. What I try to
do is stay informed and then also have other things
that sort of bring me joy in my life.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Right, I do have a question for you. Have you
found in your research that there's a link between purpose
and positivity, because I think that a lot of people
find that activism or you know, expressing political attitudes and
beliefs through purposeful behavior does generate some positive emotions for them.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Yeah, there is absolutely a link between positive emotion and
sort of sense of meaning and purpose. They're not the
same thing, but they are absolutely related. And you see
that people who have a sense of meaning or have
a way to engage in activities that bring them a
lot of meaning and purpose. They will have more positive
(23:24):
emotion and more sort of overall well being. So I
think it's a great way to think about political engagement
that if that brings you meaning to be engaged and
to fight for the causes that you believe.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
In, it's going to increase your wellbeing.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
And it's also going to increase positive emotion, which is
sort of a subset of overall well being.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I think this has been really positive. We so appreciate
your time. Thank you for joining us on the right side.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Judith, thank you so much. I've really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Judith Moskowitz is a professor at Northwestern University who studies
the mental and physical health effects of positive emotion during
times of stress.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
That's it for today's show.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Tomorrow, we're celebrating Hello Sunshine's brand new wine Drop of
Sunshine with Master Somoyer at Jillian Balance Plus. She'll share
the ultimate holiday wine pairing guide to make your festivities unforgettable.
Thank you to our partners at Coligard. The one of
a kind way to screen for colon cancer in the
privacy and comfort of your own home, talk to your
(24:38):
doctor or healthcare provider, or go to coliguard dot com
slash podcast to see if you are eligible to order online.
If you're forty five or older and at average risk,
ask your healthcare provider about screening for colon cancer with Coligard.
You can also request a coli Guard prescription today at
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Speaker 1 (24:59):
Join the com using hashtag the bright Side and connect
with us on social media at Hello Sunshine on Instagram
and at The bright Side Pod on TikTok Oh, and
feel free to tag us at Simone Voice and at
Danielle Robe.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
See you tomorrow, folks, Keep looking on the bright side.
Hosts And Creators
Simone Boyce
Danielle Robay
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