Show Notes
Welcome to season two of More Than A Feeling! Inspired by an email from a curious listener who’s been struggling with feelings of dread, Saleem begins investigating. After a call-out to listeners it becomes clear: we’re in a dread-pocalypse right now, and many of us are trying to muscle through it alone. It turns out, though, that there’s a surprising amount of joy and humor in just starting an open conversation about the things we dread, whether it’s the mundane stuff like “Sunday scaries” or our deepest dreads, like losing a loved one, political polarization or fears around the climate crisis. Clinical Psychologists Dr. Ali Mattu and Dr. Rachel Menzies join the show to explain why we have this scary feeling in the first place, and how we can start coping better.
This “dreadisode” is just the beginning of The Dread Project: a miniseries and interactive listener challenge. Starting Monday, November 14, we’ll publish five days of short episodes about the different things listeners are dreading. Each one tackles dread in a different way, and offers fun, quick, mindful exercises listeners can try – along with Saleem and thousands of others. The goal is to see if we can all feel a little better, even when we’re anticipating the worst.
Sign up for The Dread Project Challenge at dreadproject.com and you’ll get five days of emails with insights from each day’s episode and the exercise that goes with it. You’ll also find instructions in our FAQ for how to send us a voice memo, telling us what you think of the project. If you send one in, don’t forget to include your name and where you’re from. You might hear yourself on an upcoming episode! You can also follow More Than A Feeling on Twitter at podfeelings.
Sign up for the Dread Project Listener Challenge here: dreadproject.com. If you’re seeing this after the challenge has begun, don’t worry! You can sign up and participate anytime.
For more information about More Than A Feeling, The Dread Project, and today’s guests, check out our show notes at: https://www.tenpercent.com/mtaf-podcast-episodes/welcome-to-dread-project
And if digging into dread is very difficult or intense for you, some additional resources that could help are listed below.
Search for a therapist: Alma Zencare APA Psychologist Locator
Mental Health Resources: How Right Now | Finding What Helps Adult Mental Health Resources from the CDC Mental Health America
Apps: Try the Ten Percent Happier app for free for thirty days by visiting tenpercent.com/more and check out the meditation pack made especially for working with dread. Dare App - free app to help with anxious moments
If you are currently experiencing a mental health crisis, please click here, text 741741, or call 988. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
More from More Than A Feeling
Some of us are big criers, some of us are not. But does it really matter? Today: Two tears experts who have experimented with this idea in the lab and in real life let us in on their insights. We hear from Reverend Benjamin Perry, author of the forthcoming book Cry Baby, who taught himself not to cry, then set out to get his tears back. Later, we’ll hear from Dutch Psychologist Ad Vingerhoets who has spent a large part of his career studying the meaning of tears.
Today: a story about defusing conflict when emotions run high, from someone who's made it her life's work. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Maybe you want to dismiss your grudges, like they’re petty incidents. Or maybe you hold them tightly, and wear them like badges of honor. Either way, we have them. And we’re taking the view that there’s more going on with our grudges than we think.
The interviewer becomes the guest! In this Ten Percent Happier / More Than A Feeling crossover conversation, Dan Harris interviews Saleem to find out what stuck with him from his investigation into dread. We also highlight some of the best advice that came from our expert guests, from how to get the most out of journaling and drawing our dread, to discovering some unexpected joy when we confront the things that scare us most.
Eco-dread. It’s one of the most overwhelming emotions listeners are struggling with. But we can’t just tune out and shut down. Not only because it’s untenable to live that way, but because the only way out is the biggest collective action the planet has ever seen. Nature Educator Aurelia Casey and Somatic Therapist Patty Adams help listeners understand that the environments immediately around us can help us build emotional resilience, so that even if we feel paralyzed by eco-dread we don’t have to stay that way for too long. Today’s episode is the final installment of our five-day Dread Project Challenge. You can find all our episodes and daily challenges at dreadproject.com, along with all our show notes and where to find our guests. You can follow us on Twitter at @podfeelings. The show notes for this episode are available here: www.tenpercent.com/mtaf-podcast-episodes/eco-dread.