NPR to share Northwestern’s positive-emotion toolbox with its listeners

• NPR’s five-week 'Stress Less' series incorporates online stress-reduction course, 'The Resilience Challenge,' developed at Northwestern
• 'Resilience is like a muscle; it can be strengthened with exercise and repetition'

CHICAGO --- Anyone tuning into NPR’s Morning Edition today, Sept. 30, will hear the launch of a new program, “Stress Less: A quest to reclaim your calm,” which will help listeners cope with life’s challenges.

The series will broadcast an opportunity from Northwestern University — the Resilience Challenge — to its listeners and include pieces that feature experts in the field of resilience research (e.g. resilience in health, forming habits, coping with stress). One of those experts will be Judith Moskowitz, vice chair for scientific and faculty development in the department of medical social sciences Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

For decades, Moskowitz has been studying the effects of positive-emotion skills to cope with stress. She developed a toolbox of eight skills (e.g. self-compassion, noticing positive events and savoring positive experiences like a good cup of coffee or a sunset), which her team has tested in randomized controlled trials with people with serious illness, those caring for people with dementia, people with depression, high school students and violence interrupters, among others. 

Now, NPR is sharing her toolbox with its listeners.

“People can absolutely be taught to increase their positive emotions, even when things seem pretty bleak,” said Moskowitz, also the director of research at the Osher Center for Integrative Health at Feinberg. “We are so excited to be collaborating with NPR to bring these skills to their listeners to help them cope with any kind of stress they might be experiencing right now.”

NPR’s five-week program will include stories about people who are successfully coping with a variety of challenges, from relationship and work stress to worrying about climate change and political polarization. Listeners will be able to sign up for five weekly newsletters from NPR that will explain the science of stress and offer tips for practicing resilience skills.

During this same time frame, anyone 18 years and older — NPR listener or not — will have the opportunity to enroll in Northwestern’s five-week, online “Resilience Challenge” course. Those who want to access Moskowitz’s toolbox will enroll in a research study led by her team. (Read more about Northwestern’s study.)

NPR’s food and health correspondent Allison Aubrey describes Moskowitz’s eight-skill positive-emotion course as “a masterclass in managing stress.”

“Moskowitz’s research really spoke to me,” said Aubrey, who is leading NPR’s “Stress Less” series. “Her studies show that the course helps people practice skills that can really help. What I love about her research is that it adds evidence to the simple strategies that we intuitively know might be helpful. And this elevates her course — and these strategies — to the next level.”