The Upside of Your Dark Side

Outline

The Upside of Your Dark Side (2014) challenges the idea that happiness comes from feeling positive all the time. Todd Kashdan and Robert Biswas-Diener show how emotions often seen as negative, such as anger, guilt, anxiety, and sadness, can be useful when understood and managed well. They argue that psychologically healthy people use their full range of emotions to succeed.

• Happiness does not come from feeling positive all the time, and chasing constant positivity can be a mistake.
• Emotions often labelled negative, such as anger, guilt, anxiety and sadness, can be useful when you understand them well.
• Managing difficult emotions skilfully matters more than trying to avoid or suppress them.
• Psychologically healthy people draw on their full range of emotions to succeed, not only the pleasant ones.
• Working with hard emotions helps build resilience and a more balanced life.

Todd Kashdan and Robert Biswas-Diener are psychologists known for their work on well-being and positive psychology. Kashdan is an American professor of psychology at George Mason University who studies curiosity and psychological flexibility. Biswas-Diener is an American researcher, author, and coach who has studied happiness in many cultures. Together they wrote The Upside of Your Dark Side.