Your Happiness Library

By Sandra Bienkowski | February 2015

Wise Mind Living: Master Your Emotions, Transform Your Life

With lifestyle skills and mindfulness-based exercises, you can change the way you deal with fear, anger, shame and sadness to experience better health and increased fulfillment in your life, author Erin Olivo writes in Wise Mind Living.

Learn how to control your focus and attention. Pay attention to things as they are in the present moment – don’t focus on the future or dwell in the past.

Smile. Your face and body convey your emotions, but they can also create your emotions. When you smile, it triggers other, more internal activations, which then create the mood to match your expression.

Stop drawing conclusions. Jumping to conclusions is just one of the several habitual patterns of thinking that could be contributing to your stress. Sometimes just noticing negative patterns can “open up enough space for you to think more clearly.”

Want to practice mindful living? Come up with a wise coping statement to say to yourself—something you would say to a friend. Try this: “I’m strong enough to handle what’s happening right now.” Or, “This, too, shall pass.”

Sounds True, 200 pages

Erin Olivo is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medical Psychology, Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons