Organize Your Emotions, Optimize Your Life: Decode Your Emotional DNA-and Thrive

by Margaret Moore, Edward Phillips, John Hanc

From a top wellness coach and a Harvard Medical School professor, comes this revolutionary book that will show you how to identify and decode your nine most basic emotional needs—and coach yourself to a calmer, healthier, and happier life.

The more you thrive, the better your brain functions, and you’re able to perform at the best level. Your health improves. You enjoy life more. When you’re thriving, your stress level is down, your confidence is up, and the internal frenzy is tamed by a poised, self-assured mind.

But if you’re like the majority of Americans, you may be, in psychological terms, languishing rather than flourishing—surviving instead of thriving. For many, feeling overwhelmed and out of balance has become normal, a consequence of overlooking basic emotional needs. The key to reaching a happy, healthy state is by tapping into, not tuning out, your distinct emotions, and listening to the inner monologue inside your mind.

Organize Your Brain, Optimize Your Life combines the worlds of self-help, psychology, and medical science to guide you to a place of self-management and control. This insightful, approachable book will teach you how to identify, decode, and assess the nine most basic emotions that rule your brain and to recognize each of these voices and act accordingly to achieve a wide range of goals—from weight loss to career management. Coach your brain to gain deeper insight of your individual needs and live life to your maximum potential.

Genres: Psychology, Self Help, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2016

Reviews

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I would have given in 5 stars when I first finished it. But 2 weeks later - it hasn't actually helped me much. I thought the framework was going to revolutionize the way I thought but I couldn't fit my thoughts into these as described.

Autonomy, Confidence (competence), Meaning maker, body regulator, curious adventurer, Executive manager, standard setter, relational, creative.

"No beating yourself up over what you think may have caused you to feel this way or, just as bad, blaming others."

"Every one of us experiences this multiplicity of mind, that is: multiple points of view that exist separately whether we consciously recognize it or not."

"The maxims of multiplicity. Principles to keep in mind to master your multiplicity of mind....
There are always going to be inner conflicts...creative tension....When you listen to each of them you can often find a way to reach a compromise...
It's about...ongoing reappraisal and reevaluation of how your different needs are being met in the ongoing rush of life's event....
All of these parts, these sub-personalities are important, all of them play key roles in making you thrive. But first you have to acknowledge them and appreciate them and allow them fuller expression...
When you say to yourself 'I'm upset'. Once you realize it's actually just one part of yourself that's upset the feeling seems a little more manageable. It helps to understand that it's not all of you that's in distress, just a part of you. That way it doesn't seem so overwhelming. Remember that within you there are 9 perspectives on almost every issue. Don't let one drag the rest down.....
If you an find a way to heed what that voice is saying and harmonize it with the rest of the voices....that's when you're acting with single-minded purposefulness."

[Bohdan Pechenyak · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent exposition of the theory and applications of the multiplicity of mind. Inner Family Therapy was developed based on this perspective. This book presents Inner Family as interplay among nine subpersonalities, each with its own voice, all moderated and integrated by the Mindful Self. They are: Autonomy, Body Regulator, Confidence, Standard Setter, Curious Adventurer, The Creative, Executive Director, The Relational, Meaning Maker. Going through a Roll Call and identifying each voice is the key to organizing our emotions and thriving in our lives.

[Pragya Thakur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Multiplicity

When you think about “multiplicity of minds” discredited Sybil is what you think of. However, it was fascinating to learn that we all have a family of voices within us. Life is a beautiful harmony when these voices sing together and find consensus and messy in dissonance. I liked discovering how dominant my curious adventurer and confidence always are and realizing that I need to pay more attention to my Executive Manager and the Body Regulator. An enlightening read. I will definitely recommend it for others who are considering life coaching as a career.

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fairly quick read, lean and well-written. The 9 voices identified are recognizable, so the concept is easy enough to grasp and, all Sybil jokes aside, believable. I thought the case studies were interesting and useful. The last chapter is a worthy recap and a final statement with good guidelines if the reader wants to dig into the psyche deeper.

[Amanda]

Found this title when I was searching the library for titles related to emotional intelligence. In it, you learn to categorize the voices present in your self talk. It was an interesting take that made sense, although it's more indirect in its approach to increasing EQ skills (like self-awareness, self-regulation, good decision making, etc).

[Gena M Curry · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I had rated this book immediately after finishing, I would have rated it lower. The dialogues annoyed me and I struggled to finish reading. But oddly, a week later, I find myself thinking about the concepts in the book and using them.

[Hibah Osailan · Rating 4 out of 5]

very helpful and informative

[J Crossley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book examines nine parts of your personality that expenses your values, needs, capacities, and drives. By learning how these aspects speak to us we can lean to harness them to help us meet our goals.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book from goodreads first reads. This book was a little bit far out for me but with the help of some well placed cultural references (most notable Pixar's Inside Out at the beginning) I was able to get the gist pretty well. The back half that had an in depth look at the different personalities was the more interesting part of the book for me. One thing that I found super odd is that in the for example parts "Dr Eddie" would use first persons stories but - and this could totally be an interpretation error - Coach Meg was always referred to in the third person or as an a-la-Greek-muse-chime-in quote.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book very interesting, and I read it entirely, which is saying something because I lose interest in most self-help books after a while. I get bored or find them too complicated, repetitive, or whatever. I've tried out the concept of doing a roll call a few times, and each time I have gained insight into what is going on with me, so from that perspective, the concepts presented work. It will be interesting to see if my continued application of what I've learned from Organize Your Emotions, Optimize Your Life does indeed bring me great equanimity.

[Sandy Richter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book a lot. It really helped myself in many different ways. I recommend this book but at the same time I also know that self-help books can meet ones needs but not the other. For me this was a great book.