More Than A Feeling - Day 1: Rewrite Your Dread

Day 1: Rewrite Your Dread

Explicit content warning

11/14/22 • 17 min

1 Listener

More Than A Feeling

Dread can feel so heavy, most of the time we don’t even want to talk about it. But what if we tried to express our dread in a different way? Welcome to Day One of the Dread Project Challenge, a five-day series that investigates an emotion so many of us are struggling with lately – from our dread of the next Zoom meeting to worries that have life-and-death stakes. Each day of the Challenge, we tackle dread in a different way, and offer you a fun exercise for feeling a little better, even when you’re anticipating the worst.

In today’s episode we rewrite some of the stories we tell ourselves about dread. Clinical Psychologist and Poet Dr. Hala Alyan gives us a journaling prompt to get some distance and make even our scariest feelings more approachable.

Check out dreadproject.com for more information about The Dread Project and daily prompts for The Dread Project Challenge. Please share how this Dread Project Challenge, “Rewrite Your Dread,” went for you by sending us a voice memo at [email protected].

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: www.tenpercent.com/mtaf-podcast-episodes/rewrite-your-dread. And follow us on Twitter at @podfeelings.

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:

Mental Health Resources:

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.

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.

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:

Mental Health Resources:

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.

Previous Episode

Welcome to the Dread Project

2 Recommendations

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:

Mental Health Resources:

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.

Next Episode

Day 2: Dread Without Words

Yesterday we journaled about our dread. Today we’re going to see what happens when we express the overwhelming feeling of dread, without words. It’s Day Two of The Dread Project Challenge, a five-day series that investigates an emotion so many of us are struggling with lately – from our dread of the next Zoom meeting to worries that have life-and-death stakes. Each day of the challenge, we tackle dread in a different way, and offer you a fun exercise for feeling a little better, even when you’re anticipating the worst.

In this episode, we’ll talk with Clinical Art Therapist Naomi Cohen-Thompson and Meditation Teacher & Writer Jeff Warren about how visualizing, and sometimes even drawing, can help us accept the stuff that scares us.

Check out dreadproject.com for more information about The Dread Project and daily prompts for The Dread Project Challenge. Please share how this Dread Project Challenge, “Dread Without Words,” went for you by sending us a voice memo at [email protected].

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: www.tenpercent.com/mtaf-podcast-episodes/dread-without-words. And follow us on Twitter at @podfeelings.

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:

Mental Health Resources:

Apps:

Try the Ten Percent Happier app for free for thirty days by visiting tenpercent.com/more and check out Jeff Warren’s Welcome to the Party meditation.
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.