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cover art for Toska- with Dr Sophie Mort

Getting Emotional

Toska- with Dr Sophie Mort

Season 2, Ep. 2

A podcast with free therapy and extracts from my teenage diary? I'm spoiling you, I really am.


Full disclosure, this emotion is intense. Toska is a Russian feeling- often billed as untranslatable, but I've given it a good try. It's a longing for something when you don't know what you're longing for, an anguish, a sadness, a boredom. It's....a bit of a downer.If you're feeling melancholic, or perhaps during lockdown just felt pretty rubbish, you might recognise this emotion.


You'll also be happy to see I've got an expert to help me try and detangle this knotty feeling. Dr Soph Mort is a psychologist- originally working for the NHS, but now working hard to make therapy accessible and approachable for everyone. In the podcast, I discover more about what an emotion actually is (arguably I probably should have done this, like, at the beginning of the last series), how toska can (or can't) feel, and how we can work through it. Because yes, help is at hand! As I discover, this emotion may present in different ways with different people, but that doesn't mean there are little things you can do to minimise the impact of it.


And one of them is journalling! Which, handily, I've been doing since I was a teenager. So I've peppered the show with a handful of my least cringeworthy entries; part-Samuel Pepys, part-Bridget Jones. (Who am I kidding? They're 100% Adrian Mole)


Dr Soph's book is popping up in all sort of excellent reviews and Top 10 lists right now, so go grab her book, A Manuel for Being Human, before it sells out. And find me on twitter @getemotionalpod! It would be lovely to say hello!






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