Sadness and Anxiety Are Not the Same Thing

Hey readers 👋

Ignoring the coronavirus which has been well covered in the media - this week our new UK chancellor, Rishi Sunak presented his first budget to the public. This budget is what economists call expansionary fiscal policy as it increases government spending while decreasing taxes for businesses and individuals. It’s been introduced to see the economy through the coronavirus crisis and Brexit.

The budget was generally well-received by all.

However, I do find it interesting that no one is questioning how we’re going to be able to afford all the measures being introduced in this budget, given Labour’s most recent manifesto was being mocked for not being affordable.

Setting the political discussion to one side - exactly a month ago, I wrote about our tendency to confuse fear with difficulty. This week's thought follows along a similar theme.

We often confuse sadness and anxiety. It’s easy to do so because the two are very closely linked. In essence, we may be anxious about something, which then causes sadness or vice versa.

Emotional intelligence is all about being able to accurately understand and articulate how we’re feeling. If we’re able to do this consistently with accuracy, then we’ll be in a much better place to be able to deal with our emotions and our feeling. It’ll also mean we won’t be unnecessarily taking things out on others, or making others responsible for our feelings.

Stop confusing sadness with anxiety.

Have an awesome week 🤩

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3 Things I've Enjoyed This Week

1. What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness | Ted Talk - The study tracks a group of men over 75 years and the key conclusion of the study is that: good relationships keep us happier and healthier.
2. Everything you need to know about whether money makes you happy - By chance, I also came across this article this week. Spoiler alert: Money doesn’t make you happy after a certain point and the point at which that happens is unexpectedly low.
3. Oh, What a Difference 0.2422 Days Make! It’s Why We Have Leap Years - Who would have thought that learning about leap years would have been so interesting. Did you know 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, and 2300 are not leap years, but 2000 is a leap year?

Tweet of the Week

This Week's Wisdom

“Failure is a feeling long before it becomes an actual result. It’s vulnerability that breeds with self-doubt and then is escalated, often deliberately, by fear.”

- Michelle Obama, in the book: Becoming

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