Understanding emotional agility

How can understanding your emotions help you overcome adversity?

Life throws us many twists and turns, big and small, you can plan and prepare but that doesn't guarantee that there won't be a curveball that knocks you off your feet and when it does, how do you feel, how do you respond? The answers to these questions depend on your emotions and how you navigate them. Overcoming adversity calls for emotional strength and adaptiveness to change. It requires us to face our thoughts and feelings, get curious about them, use them as data, connect back to our values, and to move on. To thrive in this uncertain world, we could all use a little more emotional agility. The good news is it's a skill we can all learn and cultivate. On this episode, Deloitte chief well-being officer Jen Fisher discusses emotional agility with Dr. Susan David, an award-winning Harvard Medical School psychologist and author of the Wall Street Journal best-selling book Emotional Agility—Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive In Work and Life.

Emotional agility is, I think, one of the most critical skills that we can have as human beings. It is every aspect of how we love, live, how we parent, how we lead, and is ultimately driven by how we deal with ourselves, our inner world. Emotional agility is basically the capacity to be healthy with ourselves, to be healthy with our thoughts, our emotions, and the stories that we have.

- Dr. Susan David, psychologist and author of Emotional Agility

About WorkWell

On the WorkWell podcast series, we talk about all things well-being. Stay up-to-date with the latest health and wellness trends and discover tips and tricks along the way with host Jen Fisher, Deloitte chief well-being officer. Subscribe today and learn ways to enrich your own well-being, improve work-life balance, and create a culture of wellness at work. Each podcast is designed to help you better understand–and more importantly—embed well-being into your life and work! Visit the WorkWell library for the full collection of episodes and learn more about well-being at Deloitte.