image credit | Taras Chernus

Season 3, Episode 10: A World of Emotions Words with Tim Lomas

Thomas and Panu spoke with Tim Lomas, an emotions researcher and author of works like Translating Happiness: A Cross-Cultural Lexicon of Well-Being and The Positive Power of Negative Emotions, who has been influential on the field of positive psychology and on our podcast. It’s always enlightening to hear about a thinker’s background. Tim shared a bit of his story including an influential time spent in China at age 19 that exposed him to Buddhist and Daoist ideas that he continues to explore in his positive psychology research. The discussion touched on the benefits of the unique “granular,” that is specific and nuanced, nature of certain emotions words that can be complex and challenging to translate outside of their native language (such as Finnish sisu, Japanese wabi-sabi or Portuguese saudade). We can use a global palate of emotions to shine a light on our relationships with nature and the natural world, including our joys, hopes, and fears. 

Links

• Tim Lomas

• Translating Happiness: A Cross-Cultural Lexicon of Well-Being

• Positive Power of Negative Emotions

• John Koenig: The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows 

• Understanding “Second Wave” Positive Psychology (from Wikipedia)

Transcript

[The Climate Change and Happiness Transcript is on holiday.]