Break It Down With Dr. Kannan Dr. Divya Kannan

Shame and guilt are universal emotions, we all feel them from time to time and are a part of our social conditioning. While the emotion itself need not be maladapative, the thoughts, beliefs, and evaluations we attach to these emotions can feel as though we are engulfed by a sea of negativity. In this episode, I break down how we can respond to these two emotions.

We all compare ourselves to others, but often a lot more than we need to. This habitual behavior can be fuelled by our own beliefs, fears, and desires. Tune into this episode to understand more about how social comparison impacts us and can disrupt our journey to being our true selves.

The juxtaposition of collective and personal grief and loss alongside moments of hope for a better future has characterised the emotional landscape of the pandemic. In this episode, I deconstruct the role of hope and explore how building our capacity for hope can be a way forward.

In our attempts to have our needs for love, approval and belongingness met, we often engage in "people-pleasing" behaviours, where we go out of our way to make the people in our lives happy and pleased with us. While pleasing others can have its own rewards, there can also be personal costs attached to it. In this episode, I talk about what it means to people-please, explore why we engage in this behaviour and how we can effectively manage our emotional needs.

Overthinking can be an exhausting mental event driven by anxiety, and it is common to find ourselves in endless loops of thinking too much, with little to show for it. In this episode, I talk about how to recognise the signs of overthinking, explore ways to free yourself from thinking traps, and hit reset on your thoughts.

Being our own worst critic is an all too familiar practice, but the effects of this can be emotionally damaging. In this episode I talk about why we engage in self-criticism, the emotions that I believe fuel this behavior, and how you can soften your inner critic and have a healthier relationship with your mind. Let's break it down!