The Anxious Achiever Managing the Emotional Drain of Work and Leadership with Dina Denham Smith
6 snips
Apr 28, 2026 
Dina Denham Smith, executive coach and leadership expert who studies emotions at work, joins to unpack how feelings show up in the body and derail leaders. She outlines quick grounding and breathing tools. Short, practical frameworks like Notice, Name, Need and reframing stress get attention. The conversation centers on pausing, regulating your nervous system, and recovering energy after emotional drain.
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Have Outside Spaces To Process Masked Emotions
- Recognize that masking behavior leaves physiological and mental parts active; create outside spaces to process emotions.
- Dina advises if you must present composedly at work, have external places to metabolize feelings so they don't drain you.
Reappraisal Lets You Choose Stress Or Excitement
- You can reappraise identical physiological sensations to be stress or excitement by changing the cognitive label.
- Dina uses public speaking and dressage examples to show reappraisal shifts activation and performance.
Trauma Makes Emotions Feel Unsafe In Workplaces
- Trauma often lives in the body and makes emotional expression feel unsafe, so leaders must proceed gently.
- Dina notes trauma is cellular and can't always be reasoned away, so incremental acceptance and naming help integrate it.
