Todd Kashdan: What it means to be mentally healthy + successful [Wisdom Wednesday]

There are certain parts of our personalities that are unpleasant to experience. They can be socially undesirable to talk about. They are things like: anxiety, guilt, embarrassment, narcissism, selfishness, and more. We don’t like to talk about them, we don’t like to feel them, but we could all benefit from learning to be a little bit more comfortable with them.

Todd Kashdan is a professor at George Mason University and a recognized authority on well-being and social relationships. In this episode, Todd and I talk about what it means to be mentally healthy and successful. We dig into the dark side of our personalities, psychological flexibility, and we contrast happiness with health and success.

Todd is the author of The Upside of Your Darkside, a 2014 book that delves into the psychology of emotions and promotes the examination and appreciation of the entire emotional spectrum. In doing this, Todd’s work helps to break down a culture of forced happiness and cheerfulness and lets the whole self come into play.

If we allow ourselves to experience the full range of our emotions and recognize the cause and context behind the uncomfortable emotions, we can develop a new pathway to greater productivity, creativity, focus, and sense of meaning and purpose in life.

Listen in to this Wisdom Wednesday episode to learn more about yourself, what paths you can take, and what choices you can make. Be vulnerable, feel your emotions, and let the uncomfortable ones help guide you.

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