Emotional Geography

Coming to you live from your internal Public Broadcasting System, it's your gratitude neighborhood! Your gratitude producers, reporters, and writers work hard to gather information and stories from your other neighborhoods to craft podcasts, radio programs, and television programs to broadcast throughout your Emotional Geography through a lens of gratitude. It's up to your defenders if these broadcasts are bypassing other emotions and experiences or if they're helping you sink into the present moment with some pleasant perspective to remind you of the good things in life. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram @emotionalgeography and let us know how your gratitude broadcasts play out.

Today's neighborhood gets a little heavy, but it's one of the most important ones: grief. Come to the cloister where your cell won't be comfortable, but you will have everything you need and no distractions. Because it is here that we come to process our grief. Grief can come in many forms—from the loss of a loved one to the loss of a hope or expectation for the future. Here is where you learn that there is no right way to be inside grief. This is a space for you to be quiet and introspective so that you can discover what this loss really means to you. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram @emotionalgeography and let us know what your grief neighborhood looks like and share your favorite grief rituals.

Do you hear the beat that beckons you to your abandon neighborhood? It might feel reckless and terrifying. It might be exciting and enlivening. It might be the place you run away to when you're tempted to burn it all down, move to a remote place, and change your name. Or it might be the place you give yourself when you've responsibly placed your obligations on hold. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram @emotionalgeography and let us know how the beat calls to you from your abandon neighborhood.

It's time for a history lesson, but just like everything else here at Emotional Geography, this is a dive into yourself—it's a personal history lesson. In this neighborhood, we're building out your history library. Are the stories you tell as truth based on the facts found in your map room or are you holding onto an inherited story from someone else? Myrtle the library (and our Defender of the Week) will try to reinforce these stories, but this week we're asking you: what's REALLY true here? What's the story you want to tell yourself? Don't forget to follow us on Instagram @emotionalgeography and let us know what archetypes you're embodying and what stories you're rewriting.

  Beauty isn't just about appearance, it's a way of being. This week is all about finding the beauty in your life. It's what gives us the strength to get through the ugly aspects of humanity. Because beauty isn't what the fashion industry sets as "standard." Don't forget to follow us on Instagram @emotionalgeography and let us know what you've got going on in your Beauty neighborhood

Today you're invited to a party—the most incredible party you can imagine. But at this party, it seems like the bouncer is letting in a bunch of people who seem a little...fake. How can you tell who is the real gem and who is a hologram? Don't forget to follow us on Instagram @emotionalgeography and let us know which holograms you're working to dismantle!

Welcome to Self-Care Boulevard, the street filled with all the shopping of your dreams (even if you don't like shopping)! You are the star of your own biopic. You are the most important person in your life. We're asking you to get self-centered (because who's going to care for you more than YOU?) and line this street with all the things that help you care for yourself and stay in balance—and we don't just mean shops filled with sheet masks and bath bombs. But our defender of the week, Rita the Meter Maid, has written all kinds of confusing rules for how long you're allowed to hang out at each of these wonderful places, so it's time to re-write the rules!   Don't forget to follow us on Instagram @emotionalgeography and let us know what shops line your Self-Care Boulevard!

It's time to get balanced—and we're not limiting to the work/life binary. You see, Balance functions like a bank, and you have to make sure you're balancing your books for your five accounts: purpose, intimacy, amusement/fun, household (handle your scandal), and creative expression. You can't fill yourself up by putting your Gem Coins into just one, even if your defender thinks that's a good idea.   Don't forget to follow us on Instagram @emotionalgeography and let us know how you're keeping your books balanced!

Step into your leadership neighborhood. Think of it as a city hall and you get to invite representatives from the other neighborhoods to sit at the round table and inform your leadership style. Will you lead with Kindness, Adventure, Joy, Community, Friendship? Or will you let the defender of the week, County Commissioner Craig, run the show from his power trip? Don't forget to follow us on Instagram @emotionalgeography and let us know who is sitting at your leadership table!

It's one of Amy's least favorite neighborhoods (at least historically) this week: Anger! This is our first emotional neighborhood and it's one that often people feel afraid of. So in this episode, we're helping you really get to know your anger neighborhood. Don't worry, you can't get stuck there! Don't forget to follow us on Instagram @emotionalgeography and let us know what your anger neighborhood (and defender) looks like!

Welcome to your Expression neighborhood! Think: artist colony meets Burning Man meets New York's Chelsea Hotel. This is the place where your pure expression lives. Maybe you hang out here often, maybe Nigel the Critic (your defender of the week) scares you away with his snobby disapproval. Together, we'll help you build out this neighborhood so that you can express purely for expression's sake! Don't forget to follow us on Instagram @emotionalgeography and let us know what your communication neighborhood looks like!

This week we journey through our Communication neighborhood. Together, we'll help you build your own Post Office, ask for what you want, and be thoughtful about your language and outgoing missives. The key to this neighborhood is it’s all just information—the feelings come later. So, help Wanda (your defender of the week) out because she's so damn tired of trying to keep out the anger, jealousy, judgment, etc. defenders from other neighborhoods. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram @emotionalgeography and let us know what your communication neighborhood looks like!

Hi, we're Amy Foster and Kiki Teal Littlestar, and this is Emotional Geography. Here, we'll help you build a map of yourself, of your inner landscape—the City that is You. Each week, we turn an emotion or way of being into a “neighborhood” in your City, so you can visualize and interact with them as actual places. When you do the work of mapping out your emotions, you'll be able to know exactly where you are and how you feel, so hopefully... you'll never feel lost again. Follow us on Instagram @emotionalgeography