April 05, 2025

Quote of the Week

"Music is intended and designed for sentient beings that have hopes and purposes and emotions." --Jacques Barzun

Seven Ways To Shift Your Difficult Emotions

With everything going on in the world these days, many of us are experiencing difficult emotions more often than usual.  To help us serve as role models for our children, take a minute to read some tips on how we can shift difficult emotions without suppressing them.  When we get emotionally stuck [...], our first instinct may be to shove down our feelings or lash out at others. But neuroscientist Ethan Kross’s new book, Shift, offers another way forward that’s both respectful of our emotions and helpful for managing them effectively. Without ignoring our feelings, his book argues, we can learn to work with them in more positive ways, allowing us to gain relief and wisdom from them.

The goal is not to run from negative emotions, or pursue only the feel-good ones, but to be able to shift: experience all of them, learn from them, and, when needed, move easily from one emotional state into another.  Read more in this week's featured article from Greater Good magazine.

Reading Corner

Title: Shift: managing your emotions so they don't manage you  
By: Ethan Kross
Ages: Adult

"Far from being the enemy of rational thought, emotions are actually valuable “guides through life’s most consequential moments,” according to this illuminating guide. Neuroscientist Kross examines how emotions evolved in humans to drive attention to key priorities.  [...] He provides readers with strategies for better managing their emotions [...] and makes valuable use of his own research to debunk myths about emotions (for example, that anxiety is inherently pathological, and that feelings must be confronted because avoiding them inevitably prolongs suffering) while reinforcing their fundamental value. This will be a boon to readers looking to take better charge of their inner lives." --Publishers

Be the Change

Listen to this podcast on how music can hold us and heal us and bring some new music into your life this week to help you cope with life's challenges!