100. Karla McLaren – Embracing Anxiety

Karla McLaren is a social science researcher and award-winning author of Embracing Anxiety: How to Access the Genius of This Vital Emotion and The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You. Karla is a pioneer in the study of empathy whose trailblazing approaches and unifying theory of emotions – including the Dynamic Emotional Integration and Six Essential Aspects of Empathy – open new pathways to self-awareness, communication, and empathy.  In addition to her research on empathy, Karla is also the CEO and Founder of Emotion Dynamics and developer of the Empathy Academy online learning community. Karla joins me today to discuss the genius that comes with emotions, the lessons they try to teach us, and how to work with them. She explores how we can embrace anxiety and illustrates how we can treat it as our friend instead of a problem. She discusses the 17 emotions and the four families they belong to and explains how the belief that there are positive and negative emotions impact our emotional skills. She also shares mindfulness practices to work with emotions, such as conscious complaining and resourcing, and describes society’s tendency to “veilance” emotions. “Anxiety is the emotion that helps you complete your tasks and get things done. It has a lot of energy and a lot of work to do.” – Karla McLaren This week on The School for Good Living Podcast: Emotions as skills for survivalKarla’s beginnings in emotion research and how childhood abuse can turn-up empathyWhat emotions are, why we have them, and their role in humanity’s survivalWhy the idea that there are only four emotions hampers people’s emotional skillsThe anger family of emotions and how it helps a person to work with boundariesEmotions related to the sadness family and what it means to have suicidal urgesWhat the emotions of the fear family teach us about intuition and instinctWhat it means to “unveilance” emotionsThe definition of fundamental attribution error and how to channel emotionsAccessing and working the intelligence and genius behind emotionsHow anxiety works with other emotions and why they feel so negativeThe difference between task-oriented and deadline oriented-peopleThe backlash effect of positive affirmations on people with lower self-esteemThe art of conscious complaining and resourcingKarla’s writing process, routines, habits, and the biggest influences on her writingResources Mentioned: Embracing Anxiety: How to Access the Genius of This Vital Emotion by Karla McLarenThe Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You by Karla McLarenThe Art of Empathy: A Complete Guide to Life’s Most Essential Skill by Karla McLarenMeeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature by Connie Zweig and Jeremiah AbramsThe Heart of Addiction: A New Approach to Understanding and Managing Alcoholism and Other Addictive Behaviours by Lance DodesOn the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane by Emily GuendelsbergerThe Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling by Arlie Russell HochschildHumble Consulting: How to Provide Real Help Faster by Edgar ScheinShogun by James ClavellConnect with Karla McLaren: WebsiteEmotion DynamicsEmpathy AcademyKarla McLaren on FacebookKarla McLaren on TwitterKarla McLaren on YouTubeKarla McLaren on LinkedInSubscribe, Rate & Share! Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of the School for Good Living Podcast, with your host, Bryan Miller. If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Don’t forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And be sure to share your favorite episodes with your friends and colleagues on social media to inspire others to improve their lives and reach their full potential.The post 100. Karla McLaren – Embracing Anxiety first appeared on School for Good Living Podcasts.