The One You Feed

052: Robert Biswas-Diener

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This week we talk to Robert Biswas-Diener about the upside of your dark side.

Robert Biswas-Diener  is a psychologist, author and instructor at Portland State University. Biswas-Diener's research focuses on income and happiness, culture and happiness, and positive psychology.  Robert has written a number of books including Happiness: Unlocking The mysteries of Psychological Wealth and The Courage Quotient, and his latest book is called The Upside of Your Darkside:Why Being Your Whole Self, Not Just Your "good"Self -Drives Success and Fulfilment which was co-written with Todd Kashdan.

 In This Interview Robert and I Discuss...
  • The One You Feed parable.
  • Embracing both sides of our nature.
  • The benefits of anger, guilt and other "negative" emotions.
  • Thinking of emotions as a thermometer.
  • How only having positive emotions is like breaking a thermometer.
  • How we may not get as stuck in negative emotions as we think we do.
  • The benefits of being emotionally agile or flexible.
  • How avoidance and suppression is a bad approach.
  • That suppression is a very blunt tool and you can't selectively suppress certain emotions.
  • How avoidance is "the tectonic issue of our times"
  • Comfort addiction- we have the ability to be more comfortable than any time in history.
  • How comfort is not the same as happiness.
  • Finding the middle ground between comfort and effort.
  • Knowing is not the same as doing.
  • "Avoiding problems also means avoiding finding the solution to them".
  • Emotional Time Travel Errors.
  • Allowing ourselves to experience disappointment.
  • How the ability to tolerate some degree of psychological discomfort is one of the key attributes to successful living.
    • Robert Biswas Diener Links

    Robert Biswas-Diener Homepage

    Robert Biswas -Diener Coaching Training Program

    Robert Biswas Diener on Twitter

    Robert Biswas-Diener TED Talk

     

     

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    The One You FeedBy Eric Zimmer
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