#96: Health Harmony and Happiness Through Emotional Clarity

In this episode, my guest James Reagan of the How We Feel Project, and I talk about emotional intelligence and what it means to your health, harmony, and happiness, and how using a simple app can help you identify, understand and articulate your emotions rather than ignore them.

Emotional intelligence gives us the ability to read our instinctive feelings and those of others. It allows us to understand and label emotions as well as express and regulate them.
 
We show you how using a simple app can help you

1. Identify, understand, and articulate your emotions rather than ignore them
2. Implement strategies to become your best self even in tough moments
3. Begin to recognize patterns in how you're feeling
4. Deepen social connection with those closest to you while doing so.

Resources:

How We Feel App (Android)
How We Feel App (iPhone)

Become a How We Feel brand ambassador - get a free tote and emotions poster - simply email support@howwefeel.org.

Learn more about or donate to How We Feel here.

Resources and products mentioned in episode:

 Dr. Becky Kennedy - Follow her on Instagram for more information on Deeply Feeling Kids and talking emotions with kids

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Radiant Wellness Solutions Hike Like a Yogi Mindful Hiking Card Deck

Verilux® HappyLight® Luxe - Light Therapy Lamp

Other Resources:

Daily Rhythms Journal

Tired of feeling the pressure of life... always pushing through even when you want to just slow down?  This is the tool you need to start allowing yourself the permission to do just that - stop trying so hard. Use this tracker to get out of your head, stop trying to fix and start truly cultivating health, harmony and happiness.

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More Episodes Like This One:
#65: It's OK to Abandon Yourself
#58: Permiss

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Transcript

Cathy: 0:01

If as an adult, you aren't able to identify your emotions or what you're feeling in any given moment. It's likely going to be more difficult to thrive in the full essence of what health harmony and happiness could look like for you. In this episode, we talk about emotional intelligence and what it means to your health, harmony, and happiness, and how using a simple app can help you identify, understand and articulate your emotions rather than ignore them. Implement strategies to become your best self, even in tough moments, begin to recognize patterns or rhythms in how you're feeling. And deepen social connection with those closest to you while doing so. Welcome to episode 96. I'm your host, Cathy Stricker. This episode was recorded back in January. So there's talk and reminder of what winter communicates to us, but we are now in spring and heading hopefully into warmer days. All that being said, this is a beautiful episode. And it's one, that's very close to my heart because. The app that we're talking about, which is the, how we feel. App is one that has drastically changed the way my family and my husband and I communicate with each other and has helped us deepen our connection so much. That's all I'm going to say about it. I just want you to dive in and enjoy the show. Hey friends. Welcome back to the show. I'm so grateful that you are here today and that we are back after a long winter break. That seems like it kept going on and on with the snow days that we had at least here in Iowa. The weather's been kind of crazy around the country so wherever you are listening to this. Cheers to winter. We're here. Use it as an opportunity or an invitation to actually be in winter. Maybe that means you are slowing down a bit. Maybe that means you are reflecting inward just a bit and taking the time to, um, To tune into your inner guidance to tune into maybe just being instead of doing so much. So today I'm going to talk a little bit about, um, feelings and emotions. It now tends to be one of my favorite things to talk about and to work with clients on. But let me give you a little bit of the backstory first. So I have a couple deep feeling kids at home. And if I'm honest, I was a deep feeling kid who turned into a deeply feeling adult and didn't ever really have the tools to navigate my emotional intelligence. Yes, my mom tried, but the stubborn and perfectionist parts of me probably resisted the guidance that she did give not to her fault. It just wasn't the approach that I now know I needed when she was trying to work with me on my emotions. She didn't know that I was a deeply feeling kid. I didn't know that I was a deeply feeling kid, but every kid is different and deeply feeling kids as Dr. Becky Kennedy. Um, you can find her on Instagram. Her Instagram handle is Dr. Becky good inside. She's fantastic when it comes to talking about emotions and especially Emotions with your kids. She says that, um, we need to learn how to navigate the feelings of deeply feeling kids a little bit differently than other kids. And I'm telling you that if my mom had known this back in the eighties and nineties, I probably Would be a little bit different person, but it's beautiful because I turned out exactly how it was supposed to. And now I get to use this knowledge and this wisdom and this information to help clients and to help people just like you out there, learn how to navigate your feelings, maybe as an adult. So let me give you a little background of what deeply feeling kids might look like. Uh, they might go zero to 60 emotionally. They probably hate talking about their emotions and want to avoid it at all costs. But the truth is, if the right strategies are in place, they can actually begin to embrace the range of emotions that they do experience. And I feel like that's kind of how I have ended up being where I am today. Um, but really I've observed these deeply feeling kid transformations and changes with my own four year old and more importantly, with myself, as I said, as an adult who has spent years trying to understand myself better and peel back the layers to get my authentic. Best self to get to that authentic best self underneath a hardened shell of, um, of just kind of blocking things out or wanting to seem like the bad ass emotions are now one of my favorite things to talk about and to learn about. And in order to talk about emotions and learn about emotions, you have to be soft, right? You have to allow for the peeling back to happen, but talking about emotions, learning about your emotions. doesn't always make them easy. It doesn't always make experiencing the emotions easy. Learning to experience frustration, disappointment and sadness in life are key to actually thriving as an adult. Yet so many adults struggle with even just identifying When they're experiencing an emotion and what that emotion might be. But awareness is always the first step. So if as an adult, you aren't able to identify what you're feeling, it's likely going to be more difficult to thrive in the full essence of what health, harmony, and happiness could look like for you. Emotions matter, whether they are uplifting or heavy, we were made with a whole spectrum of emotions. And. That's how we were meant to actually experience life, feeling all of those emotions and all of those feelings and having this wide variety of them. Yes. The name of this podcast is health, harmony, and happiness with Cathy, but that doesn't mean we aren't going to have or experience the emotions that bring us down that challenge our faith or that try every ounce of who we are. If you have kids. And you have deeply feeling kids, you know what I'm talking about, because there are many times that I want to pull my hair out because it's really hard to get through to these kids sometimes, but it's in those heavy, maybe even draining emotions when we experience. suffering that we learn to cultivate endurance, which ultimately produces faith, hope, and gratitude leading to contentment in life. And that's what health, harmony, and happiness is all about. It's the wisdom that we gain upon reflection after the times when we are experiencing unpleasant feelings that helps us develop. Resilience. So in order to fully embody health, harmony and happiness and live authentically as our best selves, I believe we must experience the unpleasant, And be able to own it, own those times when we're not feeling great and to say yes to them. We can then use that information to create the life that we want to be living. Yale professor and founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Mark Brackett, says that,"Emotional intelligence gives us the ability to read our instinctive feelings and those of others. It allows us to understand and label emotions as well as express and regulate them." He goes on to say that"the ability to reach, understand, and respond to emotions in ourselves and other people is a crucial factor in predicting our health, Happiness and professional success." And it's because of this that my guest today, James Reagan is with us for over a decade, James has built technology products across a number of industries for consumers and businesses, including targets, mobile app and metas, formerly Facebook's business to business software. James recently became the first full time employee of how we feel a nonprofit organization with an award winning mobile app on iOS and. Android, how we feel as a science backed, emotional wellbeing product built in partnership with the Yale center for emotional intelligence. And in my experience, and you guys have probably heard me talk about it on the podcast, because I know that I have, and I usually share the link to it in every episode, this app is incredible. It's absolutely amazing. Um, to get a little bit vulnerable, my husband and I started marriage counseling this past year, and. One of the things our counselor recommended to us was finding an app, and she gave us the name of some others, um, that we could, an app that basically was an emotion wheel, that we could learn to start identifying our emotions and share it with each other. And, um, one of my clients actually came upon this app and shared it with me. And hands down, it changed the way we do everything. It changed, um, how we communicated. It actually got us talking about our emotions so much more than just a basic emotions wheel because it allowed us the space to pause and to actually consider what is, what is it that's making me have this emotion or this feeling? And then in the app. We could even journal about it if we wanted to, um, or share it with the other person so that they could know and also experience the range of emotions that we experience throughout the day, which, as I just read to you, is one of the definitions of emotional intelligence, um, helping identify those emotions, not only within yourself, but also in others. So James, after that long, lengthy introduction, thank you so much for waiting patiently.

James: 11:13

Welcome. Thank you so much. It was beautiful intro is so much there. That was, that was, that was wonderful. We were just talking too you about being intentional outside before, um, before we started the podcast. And I, I love that intro on just, um, spending some time to, to just be, and maybe not so much to just do. And, uh, that really resonated with me and that's, that's my plan for this weekend is to be outside a little bit and just embrace it.

Cathy: 11:40

I love it. I love it. You know, that's the message of winter. And that's kind of the, that's a large part of what I work with people on is reminding them to align their rhythms with the rhythms of life around them, the rhythms of the seasons. Yet we create this culture of doing all the time, this culture of busyness. It's okay to give yourself permission to slow down, to give yourself permission, to not rush all the time. It depends on the season of life that you're in. If you have kids with those kids too, um, but there are ways to be intentional about slowing them down as well. And. It frees up space to actually listen to those voices inside of you, to listen to the, um, the heart, the intuition instead of the outside world.

James: 12:33

I absolutely agree. And inviting that intention in is a large part of my emotional well being journey and how I got interested in this field and what really led me to. To want to be involved with how we feel. Um, and thank you for that intro. Um, and absolutely. Um, I realized when I was, uh, in my work career, my professional career, and you mentioned I worked at target and I had worked at a meta as well, that, um, I started to becoming interesting in certain facets of my life. That ultimately led me to wanting to explore more about my own emotional well being, and it started at Target. I became really interested in how I was making decisions, um, and, uh, what behaviors and, and influences were leading me to make decisions. I had read a book called Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, and ended up going to a workshop on decision making that was hosted by Shane Parrish. He runs a blog called Farnham Street. And it's all about decision making. And so I just became really interested at how, how is James making decisions and why is he making certain decisions? Because I had had no previous formal education and, um, and really decision making or an emotional wellbeing and intelligence. Um, and so I started to explore this and then, and when I joined Meta, I had the opportunity to join a seven to eight week class on, uh, that was, uh, that was hosted by somebody who is a Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute practitioner. So they had been certified in this coaching technique called Search Inside Yourself and Search Inside Yourself is a blend of neuroscience. and leadership and emotional intelligence. And that was really when I started to connect the dots that my emotional wellbeing was leading to certain decision making, um, outcomes for me. And, uh, and, and yeah, now I'm, I'm working at how we feel and I have this opportunity to work on this emotional wellbeing journal and I can really finally start to catalog My day and the emotions I'm feeling throughout my day and how that might be leading me to certain decisions or outcomes. And it's been really just an incredible journey for me. Like you mentioned, Dr. Mark Brackett, um, he's one of a scientific advisors that's helping our team. We've taken this program he ha he has called RULER, and that's an acronym, it stands for Recognize, Understand, Label, Express, and Regulate Your Emotions. Now, RULER has been rolled out to, I want to say, four to five thousand schools across the world. And so, younger generations are fortunately becoming more introduced to this concept of emotional well being earlier in life. Whereas, um, Our demographic, this was not something that was, was, was really, um, taught in schools or, or really just discussed

Cathy: 15:29

from the parent to child level. Let's stick with the math, science and reading, you know, like, I mean, there was a little bit when I was growing up, but it was very small and not a big emphasis. So this program is pretty phenomenal. Um, I just, I had looked into it more when I was researching for this and it's pretty incredible.

James: 15:51

Oh yeah, absolutely. Um, and I've just really felt a deep connection to the mission that how we feel has, and it's been, it's been a lot of. Not only fun, but, um, it's created a lot of additional meaning for me to be working in technology and to be working on this type of product that yesterday we had a team meeting and actually it was Dr. Mark that said, you can't talk about, um, you can't talk about wellbeing without talking about technology nowadays, right? They're so intertwined and, um, and so, you know, being able to work on this for me is, is really important.

Cathy: 16:29

So you didn't come necessarily from the, um, from the. Psychology side of things from the mental, emotional side of things. You came from more a technology background,

James: 16:41

right? Yeah, correct. Yeah. I started working on what was the interest.

Cathy: 16:46

I know you had said that when you were working at target, you had this interest in, um, how you were making decisions. What prompted that? Like, why, why even, Oh, I I'm just wondering how I make decisions. I mean, that's kind of an interesting, um, trailhead, I guess.

James: 17:02

Yeah, yeah. Thank you for asking that. So, um, I would say the genesis for that interest was I was considering doing a master's in business and I started to seek out the reading lists from some of the programs that I was interested in. And, um, on the reading list, uh, one of the reading lists was this book. Um, thinking fast and slow and, uh, and, uh, Daniel Kahneman. And I, and I believe, um, some of his, the other researchers he was working with ended up winning a Nobel prize for their findings in this book. But it really was just a fascinating, fascinating, um, uh, look into, into just decision making and how these people make decisions. And, and I would say that, you know, people will read books, Often, at least I hope they do. And that they, they take something meaningful away from the books that they're reading. And, and usually that's maybe not enough to become deeply interested in something. What really for me ended up being, um, something that I really took away from the book where I was like, wow, this is super fascinating to me. I took some of the concepts from the book and I applied them to my team to see if there would be an outcome and some of the ways we were working together. So one of the things I did is, uh, In the book, there's this concept of a remote association test and a remote association test. Um, initially they were created to, to test people's creativity and the way that these tests work are, you'll have three words and you're supposed to guess what the fourth word is that connects the three words. So I'll give you an example. We can do one together. Um, here's three words. One is broken on the spot. Yeah. Right. One is, one is broken. The second word is clear. And the third word is I. And then you have to find a fourth word? Fourth word that connects all three of them.

Cathy: 19:01

Broken. Clear.

James: 19:03

Eye. Mm hmm. And the, so a fourth word in this case will be glass. So it's eyeglass, broken glass, clear glass. Oh, I get it. Kind of, kind of, kind of, uh, that one's a little bit more challenging. Another one would be It's like a,

Cathy: 19:16

um, it's like a, uh, Wheel of Fortune puzzle. Yeah.

James: 19:22

Yeah. And like, here's another example. Square. Cardboard. Open. Box. Yes. You got it, right? So it's like, so, so, okay. So what happens there is you. Now you've made this association. And in this, what I was finding is, and also in the book, it suggests this, but that when you go through these tests and you complete that, I don't want to call it a puzzle, but when you complete it, There's something that happens to you that generates some sort of cognitive ease. And so I started to bring these tests into, they're not really tests, but I was bringing, I was starting my meetings with my teams with these remote association tests. And it was sort of priming them for the outcome for the meeting, which I wanted to be. For them to be more at ease with one another and for them to be more creative with one another and working better with one another. And so I started to bring these concepts from this book into my practice and I was like, wow, this is, this is really fascinating for me. And yeah, and so that's really what I took. I read the book. I found the information fascinating. But then when I started to apply it, I, In my own ways. And then my, you know, in the industry I'm in, I was, I was really kind of blown away and then it just sort of like pulled me along this journey about my own self and decision making, how

Cathy: 20:41

am I being tried? Isn't it amazing how one book can spark interest in something else and leads us down a rabbit trail to other things. And it's so beautiful. So beautiful. Um, okay. You also mentioned something about. working on a journal, correct? And keeping a journal. Tell me more about that.

James: 21:03

Yeah. So at how we feel, um, the app itself. Is, uh, allows people. So we have an interpretation of a mood meter, which is four quadrants where, uh, the four quadrants represent the level of intensity. Uh, you might be feeling about a specific emotion and, um, and also. Uh, whether that's like a positive or kind of a pleasant or an unpleasant emotion. Um, and so these four quadrants are represented in colors, blue, red, yellow, green. Um, and our goal at one of our goals at how we feel is to help people broaden their emotional lexicon. So to directly find that emotion they might be feeling so they can describe it. And when they describe it, this is how I feel. We also will hope that eventually they'll, um, Expound a little bit more on why they might be feeling that way and it's okay if they don't know. In fact, we have, I've used the journal in a lot of different ways. Some is a little bit more exploration where I'm saying, Hey, you know what? I feel like this morning I told you I feel really upbeat and I think I know one of the reasons is I get to connect with Cathy's audience and, and just chat with her about the things that I'm working on and what our interests are. And, um, and that's one reason. And another reason, um, Might be because, uh, you know, we talked about this weekend. I get to go and we'll get to be outside and just focus on being present and being in the moment. And like you mentioned, though, your, your emotions over time are going to change. They're like the weather. And sometimes you might be feeling an emotion or feeling generally, maybe you're sad for some reason. Maybe you don't know why. And that journal, we're really trying to, um, encourage people to just explore, you know, what those reasons might be and, and why they might be feeling a certain way. And so the, yeah.

Cathy: 22:56

So the app is considered the journal in essence, right? Yeah. Yeah. I haven't explored that much, but how, like when, well, I'm just gonna let you tell me when you use it because I will do it and I'll, um, I'll take notes in there depending on where I'm at. And we've talked about this before in the past, like depending on what I'm doing, depending on how strong the emotion is. Um, if it's a time when I'm really feeling a very strong sense of an emotion and I need to process it. I'll either process it on paper in my paper journal, or I'll just in the app, go ahead and take notes on it. And I love that it now prompts you like what's making you feel this way, or what is it that could be contributing to this? Because then you can go in and just do your journaling right there. Once you have that information in that journaling, and I haven't ever gone back and like tried to look or reflect reflected on it, but can you go back then and like pull it up and be I don't know. I explored the old version more than I have explored this new updated version, I guess. So tell me about that.

James: 24:02

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm really happy that you're sharing this with me because then it gives me an opportunity as well to understand your experience with the, with the journal and how it's helped or what could be changed. We're always looking for feedback on this, um, by the way, if any of the listeners ended up using the product. Yes, you can go back and find previous journal entries. Uh, the easiest way to do this would be After you've checked in, we call it an emotion check in. So you're selecting an emotion. You can select up to two emotions at a time. You check in and sometimes I want

Cathy: 24:35

to select five, just so you know, as a deeply feeling kid, I completely understand feeling adults sometimes I'm like, Oh, there's not enough

James: 24:45

team was talking about this yesterday. And one of, one of our engineers is. He, he wants to, to enable that type of capability so that people can multi select. Um, but yeah, so you, so you can, you select this emotion to identify it and then, um, and then we prompt the, you know, to see if there's any more detail you want to include with the reason you selected that emotion and you can journal and then it saves it. And then if you're on your check in tab and you scroll down, you'll see all of your saved journal entries. Oh yeah. And we've really tried to. And you, and then to read the actual journal entry, you can tap on it and it will open up. And we've, we've referred to this as sending an emotion postcard to yourself because we allow you to take these photos as well. And then when you have the photo, we overlay the text on the photo. We've really tried to invest in making it very visually stimulating and appealing for people to want to really put the care and intention into Documenting something for themselves. Um, so there, there is, um, this element where you can go back and look, but I will say that it is something that we're actually really trying to improve, which is a way for people to really quickly draw more insights out of their journal entries. Today, there's. You know, you as an individual kind of go in and you have to tap in and look and read these different entries and our team starting to discuss in the future. Maybe there's a way that we can provide a better summary for people or something else like that. I

Cathy: 26:16

mean, with everything that we can do with AI, you would think that there is something that's beautiful. That's amazing.

James: 26:25

Yeah. That's the hope. That's the hope, which is providing people these. Summaries based on the things they're interested in learning. So for example, when I'm checking in and I've changed the way that I check in over time, sometimes I will check in and I'll, uh, I'll add a lot of detail or I'll try to check it many times in a day. And sometimes there'll be these periods where I'll go a few days and not, not checking it all. And I'll just kind of see where I'm at and then come back to the app. Um, and, and we have this tab, it's called the analyze tab. It lets you sort of see these patterns over time, because the big part for us is. It's not only helping you build that emotional lexicon, right, to find the words that describe the way you feel, because Dr. Mark, his, his, um, program is about, you know, recognizing, understanding, labeling. And once you find that emotion, then you can figure out how to. How to really regulate, how to choose a strategy that works for you. And so what our team wants to do is we want to help you identify these patterns for how you're feeling. And then we're also, we just started to work on this. We're actually pretty close to, to releasing it. And the app store soon is. Introducing more interactive strategies for people to adopt if they want to regulate in the app and you know some of these I think you're probably already familiar with which would be certain breathing exercises or move your body exercises where people are actually physically doing something to try to make themselves feel better. I, I typically go out and I'll walk, you know, just try to get active or go to the gym. But then we have other cognitive strategies that we're going to have in the app, which are reframing, looking at a circumstance from different lenses or different times. And we have some other really fun ones in there. And you, you mentioned in your intro as well, being the best version of yourself, one of the categories, Of our strategies is called best self. And we have, we have some really fun ones that are going to be in that category that will, will, um, that are very interactive for people to kind of, they're actually kind of creating a strategy for themself. And we walk you through that process.

Cathy: 28:37

That's beautiful. That's beautiful. I'm super excited about these updates. I'm not kidding. This app, it's amazing. It is. It has literally changed our lives only because I know that like my husband, and I think there's a lot of men out there that are like this, but my husband was a Marine. He is in law enforcement. Like he is basically the epitome of don't share your emotions. Don't share your feelings, stuff it down. Don't, you know, talk about it. So the process that I've been able to witness. With him and myself, um, getting to actually start to talk about our feelings and start to talk about our emotions and the role that the app has played has been huge, huge. Um, so I tell everybody about it. I tell everybody about it, but I love to hear that. That like you're coming up with these ways to keep prompting like, Oh, here's some somatic exercises that you can maybe do. Um, when you're feeling this heightened sense of, you know, anger or anxiety or whatever it may be, because it's those times that we have to, like you said, you go out and move your body, but. I would say that most people, if they are not in tune, they don't realize that that's like energy in their body that needs to be shifted or moved. And the way to do that lots of times when it's, when it's one of those intense feelings is to actually move their body to get the energy moving and to do something. And it doesn't have to be anything huge. You know, it can be, um, it can be just, you know, Certain types of breath work, or it could be shaking your body and moving your body for a couple of minutes to help get that energy out and moving to have the reminder in the instant. Because we can become aware of it. We can put it in the journal and then do nothing with it. Right,

James: 30:29

right.

Cathy: 30:30

Yeah. Based on working with clients, that is my, that's the biggest thing that happens is even if they identify that, it's like, well, I don't know what to do with it now. So it's learning what to do with it. I

James: 30:43

really identify with these points. I mean, the, the one you made as well about men not being as in touch, I would say that's similar to my experience. I have three brothers. Um, and so I've asked them to use the app as well and to try it. And, um, it's been really interesting. My, one of my brothers has three kids and he said he, He has been using the app and it's helped him and his kids talk a little bit more about the specific emotion that they might be feeling given a certain circumstance and, and then to have those discussions afterwards. Um, and then the, the point you had on, on these strategies right now, if you download the app at this point in time, we have videos in there. Uh, in the app, um, that explain different strategies that people can do. And what we've seen is that while the videos are a very easy format to consume, um, That it's, it's not something that, how do I put this? It's, it's, if you really see, if you check in and you're really in the red zone, which would be something like you're angry or uncomfortable, it's a high energy, unpleasant quadrant for the mood meter, maybe you're, you're anxious or you're scared or, or something watching a video may not really help as a strategy for you to, for you to, to take, take that action and regulate the emotion. And so that's, that's kind of where we're moving to, which is more of. Have have somebody give somebody an opportunity to actually, um, Do a breathing exercise right in the app, right? Um, instead of, instead of teaching them about the breathing exercise, we'll have a way that people can set a A set of repetitions and do the physiological sigh or box breathing, um, or other types of, uh, uh, breathing exercises. Yeah.

Cathy: 32:28

Yeah, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. Um, that's one of the things that my, that I hear most often from students and clients also is like, can I just have your voice? Can you just, can you just, when I'm, you know, when I'm in this. To me, I'm like, well, I have to have this feeling or this emotion or when this is happening. Can I just have your voice pop into my ear and say whatever it is I need to say or guide me through this breathing? And I'm like, well, yes, like it's in the process. I'm working on recording those meditations and recording things, but like, that's the biggest thing. So if it's, it's still. It's in there in the app, you know, and it just can guide people through it. That's beautiful. Yeah.

James: 33:03

Um, and, and like you mentioned too, I mean, that energy is in people and, and, and getting up to move and release that energy can be very helpful, but there's a lot, also a lot of cases, right? If you're working in an office or some other place, you may be a little bit restricted and we know that those settings can also be some of the cause or the, The reason behind those emotions, right? Maybe you go into this meeting and it's, you know, it's not a, it's not a great meeting or it's not, um, it didn't go the way you want and you may not have that opportunity to just kind of get up and get out, but we'll, we'll have ways that you can kind of silently also take part in a strategy that could help you be the, become the best version of yourself in that moment. And so I'm really looking forward to this and hopefully it resonates with, uh, with people that are looking for these types of strategies. I love

Cathy: 33:53

it. So you also mentioned earlier on that, um, like having a wellbeing app is kind of crucial to success these days to, to just to thriving in your best self, I guess. Um, there's an app for everything, right? But what makes how we feel essential to. To being in this arsenal of well being apps that people are going to every day and trying to create habits and lifestyle changes.

James: 34:26

Yeah, this is a great question. The market is really broad. I, we've seen really dramatic changes in the number of mobile apps. Um, over the last several years, especially because of of the pandemic, of course, um, that really generated a lot of interest in, um, emotional well being and mindfulness, um, calm became really popular. I know a lot of people use that as a, uh, as as an app. Um, head space, talk space as well. Even apps that allow you to connect with care providers. The unique thing about how we feel, I would say, um, what I've seen recently with a lot of these apps, by the way, is that with the feature sets that they have, so what you can do in these apps is. They're, they're largely becoming similar in the sense where you can do a lot of mood tracking and journaling and get an educational component out of many of the apps. Um, what sets how we feel apart is a few things. Uh, the first is that we're, we have a really deep partnership with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and that scientific advisory team is really helping us bring forth scientific backed practices. Science back practices. And the second thing is that we are a nonprofit. Um, we are not, um, we, we, we don't charge a fee to use the app. There's no subscription fee or anything like that. That's a big factor for us is trying to bring these practices and learnings to everybody. And I would say the third thing that really sets us apart is. Our team is really interested in the craft of building a great mobile experience. And I hope that really comes through when people try the app. It's, it's really beautifully designed and built, and we've tried to make it really simple. And, um, we put a lot of care and effort into trying to bring a concept that can be so challenging, like what emotion am I feeling and making it easy for people to do. And, um, and so that would be, those would be the three reasons I would say that How We feels trying to stand out and be unique. And we're constantly going to push ourselves to build more novel experiences for people.

Cathy: 36:46

Yeah. I love it. Um, and I mean, it, It's simple. That's the other thing. It's very, I feel like it's very intuitive. So I think that you guys have definitely hit the mark with, with um, ease of use and, and allowing it to be accessible to anybody. This just came to me when we were talking a bit ago is that I kind of wish there were an option for multiple profiles. And it came to me when you were talking about your brother with his kids and that my kids, I wish I could set up a profile for my kids on my, cause they don't have devices yet. So I wish I could set up a profile for my kids on there because they like to sometimes check in or sometimes when they're having a hard time figuring out what they're feeling, then I'll just give them mine and I'll have them check in on my. Because at least my big kids, cause they can at least read the emotions and then we get to talk about what they might mean, but it's super helpful. And I just think that would be really cool then to have, Oh, then I can see my, my family on there too, or my kids on there. I can see my husband's as much as I can, as much as he shares with me, but like an

James: 37:54

awesome feature. Yeah. Having anyway, so it's one, it is one thing we're exploring is the, um, is, is allowing people to create an account. So today There is no account based system. And so it's.

Cathy: 38:09

Which also makes it super easy, by the way. Like, you know, that's like, Oh, just get it, download it and get

James: 38:15

started. You can start using it. Right. And, and we're thinking of building out a way that people can, um, can create an account. So that way, if they ever change devices or if they ever want to go from an Android to an Apple phone, then they can take the data with them. But today it's all stored on their device. Um, and that's why that's, we don't have the multiple accounts, but again, like it's something that we are. Um, going to be prioritizing. Yeah.

Cathy: 38:40

Cool. Um, kind of like, you know, messenger kids. Like I can see my kids, all my kids, my kids profiles and messenger kids, but something that would be easy to click back and forth between, um, would be a beautiful. Upgrade at some point. If I were dreaming, you know, and if I'm like, well, sky's the limit.

James: 39:01

Yesterday, our team was in a session where all of us were sharing our dreams and hopes for the app. So this is right on, this is right at the time to be

Cathy: 39:08

sharing this for us. Perfect. Perfect. We'll pass that along to whomever needs to hear it. Um, because it is, Beautiful way to also invite that conversation with your kids at home. And like I said, when you have deeply feeling kids, you just have to approach things differently. And man, it's a learning experience. It's definitely a learning experience. I want to know also, would you share with listeners how, how we feel came about? I know you've told me this story before when we've talked on the phone, but how did this whole concept develop and how did it come about and why?

James: 39:44

Yeah, great question. Um, so I, I joined How We Feel in 2023, but at that time, the organization, which because it's a nonprofit, had already been established for several years. So How We Feel came about. Initially, it was an app to track COVID symptoms. Um, and so the, the app was geared around trying to help identify where there might be, um, people experiencing symptoms of COVID. And then the team was working with researchers to try to understand if there was a way that they could, um, use a mobile app to, to try to help the response, the medical response in the medical community understand more about. COVID is it was, uh, you know, I think right at the beginning of 2020 and the pandemic, people just weren't sure what was going on. And, um, everybody was looking for information and support. And so the app really, the, the, how we feel project started as a way to try to support those, those efforts, and they actually had, uh, findings that were published in the nature for human behavior and how the app was able to help people that were self reporting COVID symptoms. Um, yeah. And it was, yeah, so there's a research report out there about what the app was able to do. Then at some point, uh, I'm not exactly sure from a timeline perspective when, but the app shifted to focus more on emotional well being. And I really, um, believe that that was, it's just an important pivot for the app as well, because What we also saw at the pandemic, not only from physical symptoms people were experiencing, but there were a lot of other emotional impacts from the isolation, from the pandemic, from the lockdowns, right? We were just talking about the, the, the three days being shut in due to the winter snow storm and, um, um, but, and that was nothing compared to like, you know, the, the weeks or months that people were, were, you know, We're essentially not connecting with other people physically. They weren't sure whether they're able to. And so the app started to focus more on those impacts that the pandemic had on people, which was this isolation and loneliness and how people were emotionally. Responding to the events around them. And now that's become the primary focus of the app is it's, it's not pandemic related anymore, but it is, it's focused on helping people understand their emotions.

Cathy: 42:14

It's so beautiful. It's so beautiful. What a beautiful thing to be birthed or to come out of such a strange time and such a, such a challenging time and challenging time. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, James, I don't want to keep you much longer. Um, but is there anything else you want to say about the app or about, um, how we feel that listeners need to know or could benefit from?

James: 42:42

I would say the only thing. That, um, I don't think we discussed much about so far. It's just that there is an opportunity for you to connect with other people through the app. Uh, so we have, we have a tab in the app as well. That's called friends where you can add a friend or, um, a connection. Um, and you're able to share those journal entries if you want with with your friends. And so it's the apps gives you an outlet to build social connection, and that's something that we're also exploring more deeply, which is, uh, Yeah, that there is some evidence to suggest that as a strategy, we've talked about these emotional regulation strategies. One of them is, you know, when you need to connect with somebody, you should reach out and connect and let them know how you're feeling or.

Cathy: 43:29

Absolutely. Community and being in community, even if it's just the community of one other person is so therapeutic and so healing. And We know that we were not meant to, did we talked about isolation? We know that we were not meant to be, um, built in this, this place where we live in isolation, where we live, um, by ourselves and depend on ourselves. We were created to be in community with others. And so to be able to invite a little bit of vulnerability and share, and I'm so glad you brought this up because I know I kind of breeze through like why it's made an impact in my husband and my life, but the biggest part of that is that we get to share with each other throughout the day and we get these notifications Oh Matt's feeling upbeat Matt's feeling confident Matt's feeling crappy That's not one of the feelings but like, you know, then I get to See what my husband is feeling and experiencing. And it invites the conversation for us to be able to say, Hey, what's going on? What's going on? Why are you feeling this? Or, wow, you must've had a really great day because you know, I saw that you were feeling this earlier today. And when we first started using the app, you couldn't share the journal stuff, but now you can share more with the person. And I love it. I absolutely love it. I also have one of my clients who, um, shares her stuff occasionally with me too. And it's. It's super helpful. So I love that you brought that up because then it's just a little nudge to be able to support the people in your

James: 45:01

life. Yep. You, you said it beautifully. It's, it invites that, that opportunity, the intention for the, for the people to connect. Yeah. That's

Cathy: 45:11

awesome. Okay. Well, James, I always wrap the podcast up when I have guests with two final questions. And so we're going to, we're going to go with those. So the first one is. Um, out of all of that we've talked about and, and with how we feel and the journaling and everything, how does all of this cultivate greater health, harmony, and happiness in your life?

James: 45:35

Yeah. Um, I would, I would say that, uh, I mentioned this before, but I really do subscribe to this way of thinking and I believe in it that you can't talk about mental health. Um, without talking about technology is the, is the first part and that I, that I see personally that health and wellbeing are, are holistic. So your physical, mental, and emotional health are all tied together. And that, um, working, you know, in this environment and in this space with how we feel, which is focused on emotional wellbeing has really helped my overall health. And the way that I look at my overall health and as far as harmony is concerned, what I've experienced on my journey, building, um, building software for emotional wellbeing is that these emotions are their information and that information has the opportunity to, um, to change how you live. And if you want to live a more harmonious or balanced life, then, you know, understanding the way you feel and what might be. What might be causing an emotion for you, um, spotting those patterns. It, it really helps you navigate life. And it, it, it, I really do believe that that's going to lead you to more harmonious way of living. And then finally with happiness, I would say. A major driver of happiness for me is that human connection is the thing that we had closed our conversation on just a minute ago and, um, understanding a little bit more about ourselves helps us connect more effectively with others. And that's where I end up getting a lot of happiness is connecting with friends, connecting with my family, my spouse.

Cathy: 47:09

So I love how you said that understanding more about ourselves helps us enhance the connection with others. So true. So true. That's incredible. It is when we're on this self understanding journey. And I think it takes a pivotal change in life, whatever that may be. And maybe you don't even realize it's the pivot point until you're all the way through it. That sparks your interest in starting to understand more about yourself for you. It was when you were working at target and you first read that book and thought, Hey, I wonder how I can influence or impact my team members with some of these strategies. That little spark led to. This giant self understanding journey for you,

James: 47:55

a little seed planted long ago. And

Cathy: 47:58

isn't that amazing. And because of that, it enriches all the other people that you impact all the other people who, um, you come in contact with. Yes. That's what our emotional health does when we take care of it, when we nurture it, when we, um, take the time to honor the rhythms that we experience, which is what we do. The rhythms that we experience are all of our emotions, you know, on a big level and on these little micro levels throughout the day that all influences how we show up in this world.

James: 48:32

Absolutely.

Cathy: 48:35

Thank you for sharing that. And then the final answer I, or the final question, I guess, rather that I have is what's one thing you're doing in life right now to invite more intention into your life, whether it's just using this app or is it something different that you're doing to invite intention?

James: 48:52

So it is something different. Um, and so there's a, it's, it's one answer, but there's two parts to it. So what I've been doing is as often as I can to be active outdoors, and I know it's winter, the weather, depending on where you live, it can be challenging to do. So we talked a little bit about snowshoeing. I am an outdoor enthusiast. I love winter sports. I'm going to try to go skiing, um, this weekend, but when, you know, I know that it's not depending on where people live, they may not be able to do that. So something that people could do, I would say every day that I do myself is I try to go out. For a walk every morning before I start my day. And what I found is it helps me appreciate the things it helps me just appreciate myself, appreciate everything that I have. And it generates some gratitude, um, just for myself and where I'm at with. Um, in my life, you know, and to just get outside and go for a little walk and, and then I can start my day. Um, and I found that that really has, has helped me quite a bit.

Cathy: 49:57

Oh, intentional movement is so critical, so critical. And at the start of the day, so I want to know this walk that you go on because I'm a walker too, and like, I'm short, I'm only five foot three and a half. And that is, that's not, that is not short. When you are that tall, five foot three, yes, it is. Anyway, I have one of my best friends is like, she's like six, two or six, three, right? So we're like weird. There's a giant difference. And so when the first time we walked together. My husband's like, she'll like, I was a little bit worried because I'm like, she has such long legs. Am I going to be able to keep up with her? And my husband's like, nobody can keep up with you. And you're so short. Like you're just sure enough, she struggled with keeping up with me. I am such a fast walker. I'm just a naturally caffeinated person. So walking fast, like I would prefer to run. And my motto in life used to be, why walk when you can run and get there faster? And then the unraveling of My speed started to happen only by intention that I started to realize, whoa, being fast and going zero to a hundred or going a hundred miles per hour, a hundred percent of the time is not always beneficial. We need the times in life to slow down and be present and to check in with ourselves, to understand ourselves a bit more. And I think that's exactly what, how we feel helps us do as well. So, for what it's worth, even if you're a naturally caffeinated person, you can slow down in life. It is possible.

James: 51:43

You can slow down. Invite intention in. That's right.

Cathy: 51:46

Exactly. Exactly. So I'm wondering what's your walking? Like what's your walking style?

James: 51:51

My walking pace is fast. Uh, it is, it is, uh, I do, I do like to try to get my heart rate up a little bit. Um, but the thing is when I am walking in the morning and I will, I'll keep that pace, but I will pause, I'll stop. And I'll, I'll look at certain things that capture my attention. And that's the intentional part, right? And I will slow down, whether it's the way the sun might be rising, um, because it's in the morning or. You know, based on the weather, if I'm fortunate enough to be in a place where there's maybe a little bit of snow on the ground, appreciate the snow or if it's springtime, you know, and you see flowers, I just really try to, there's, um, I live, I live in California and I live in a town called Redwood city. And as I'm walking, there's this, just a gigantic, gigantic, uh, Redwood tree. That's, um, that's right near, like, not the center of town, but it's on the walk. And, and, um, I, I always, it just gives me pause every time I see it. I just am. I'm always so impressed.

Cathy: 52:53

That sounds beautiful. You know, my, another one of my colleagues, um, she's here in Iowa. Also, she has a yoga studio in another small town. She has some cards that you might like. Um, it's called the hike, like a Yogi. Deck, it's a card deck and it's just a little, it's a little card deck and I've been, I wish I had it. I left it at home today, but, um, it, you just can pull a card before you go for your hike or your walk. And it just reminds you of these little mindfulness things that you can do on your walk. So for instance, it's so funny because everyone that I drew this week before we were snowshoeing was all about breathing and, um, inhaling and exhaling. And it put a little spin on those, but there's different things like, um, notice, noticing the colors around you. So on your walk, well, on your walk, notice. You know, so it's just tiny ways of inviting the mindfulness in, but it's fun to do before you go out on your walk, because then it allows you to remember for those of us who like to walk fast, what was the name of the, it's called hike, like a yogi card deck. She, okay. So her I'll, I'll link to it in this episode too, but I can send you, um, her information, but it's radiant wellness solutions is her website. And from that website, then you'll be able to find her hike like a Yogi. She is a forest bathing guide as well. So she has, is trained in, in all of that. And she's put this, this beautiful little card deck together that, I don't know. It's fun. So if it's something you're interested in, check it out. I don't receive anything from telling you about this. I just think it's a beautiful product and a great, a great thing. So, um, yeah, that's it. Radiant Wellness Solutions, hike like a yogi card deck. It's fun if you're into walking and hiking. And you have a, sounds like you have a beautiful place to, to go out and explore nature. Yeah. Um, but it's fun to use year round, even if you are in a place where there's Lots of snow. Like we are bombarded right now. We've had so much fun, even when going out and snowshoeing, drawing a card or drawing a couple cards and doing the practices as we, as we hike or as we walk.

James: 55:01

I'm going to look into this. Thank you. It's a great suggestion.

Cathy: 55:04

You're welcome. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, James, you have something that, um, you're willing to give away to listeners if they, um, if they Download the app and start using it maybe a little bit. So would you like to tell them about that? Yes. Yeah. Thank you so much for, for giving me the opportunity.

James: 55:23

So we are looking for people to help support the mission of how we feel. Like I mentioned, it's a nonprofit. We would love to see more people download the app and spread the word about what we're doing. And so for, uh, for five people, we're looking to kind of be a mini brand ambassador for us. Um, if you download the app and, um, And you mentioned, Hey, I listened to the podcast and so I've downloaded the app. We will send you a tote and a poster, um, with, somehow we feel swag that our team has.

Cathy: 55:56

I love it.

James: 55:57

And they can reach us through, uh, the support channel. Um, when you download the app, if you go into settings, it allows you to, to send an email directly to our team.

Cathy: 56:05

And so that's how I first got in contact with you and like you emailed back right away and it was fantastic. Um, but I will also link and I'll put, I'll put the email in the show notes. So people have it there as well. You are a nonprofit, so is there a way if people want to donate? That people can contribute monetarily if they want to.

James: 56:24

Yes. There is, uh, on the website we have, people can go to our donation page. And of course, yeah, we, we always appreciate people that reach out and, and ask if, if they can donate.

Cathy: 56:36

I love it. Ah, thank you so much, James, for taking the time today to sit down and chat with me and to share about this beautiful, beautiful service that is available for free to anybody anywhere Thank you.

James: 56:50

Thank you for having me and I'm really excited to, like I said, just, just connect with your, your listeners. And this has been a really fun conversation for me. And I grew up in the Midwest, so I know that those Midwest winters are, can be a little challenging and lengthy, but, um, uh, hang in there. And I'm, I know that this brings right around the corner.

Cathy: 57:10

It is, you know, we haven't hardly had any snow this year until the past two weeks. So. We're good. I've got my happy light that I use every morning. I've got my vitamin D and I try to get outside as much as possible. And I hope that my listeners also, um, are doing those things as well, because those are things that I talk about on the podcast. Thank you so much for being here today, James. All right. Thank you, Cathy. Um, yeah. Take care. Thanks. You can download the, how we feel app in the apple or Google play store and start gaining emotional clarity today. Using a tool like this absolutely will deepen yourself, understanding journey and enhance your health, harmony and happiness. Even when life feels heavy. It doesn't take long to use and it gives space to all those feelings and emotions that can tend to get stuck inside you and cause other issues when they aren't acknowledged. I'm Cathy Struecker and you've been listening to health, harmony, and happiness with Cathy. Cheers to cultivating a global impact through health, harmony, and happiness.