Living Beyond Your Feelings

Author: Joyce Meyer
Genre: Self-Help
Publisher: FaithWords, 2014
Pages: 288
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: The average person has 70,000 thoughts ever day, and many of those thoughts trigger a corresponding emotion. No wonder so many of us often feel like we're controlled by our emotions. Our lives would be much improved if we controlled them. 

In Living Beyond Your Feelings, Joyce Meyer examines the gamut of feelings that human beings experience. She discusses the way that the brain processes and stores memories and thoughts, and then - emotion by emotion - she explains how we can manage our reactions to those emotions. By doing that, she gives the reader a toolbox for managing the way we react to the onslaught of feelings that can wreak havoc on our lives.

In this book, Meyer blends the wisdom of the Bible with the latest psychological research and discusses the 4 personality types and their influence on one's outlook, the impact of stress on physical and emotional health, the power of memories, the influence of words on emotions, anger and resentment, sadness, loss and grief, guilt and regret, the power of replacing reactions with pro-actions and the benefits of happiness.

Review: I chose this as my pick for a self-improvement book from my 2016 Reading Challenge. This isn't my genre of choice so I selected the audio version thinking it would be easier to digest. I was put off initially because it was "preachy," and then I realized I was probably annoyed because there's a lot of truth to her words and advice that I had been ignoring. 

The bottom line is that we cannot control others, we can only control ourselves. It seems simple, but I really liked that she pointed out that emotions are like unruly children, and it is up to us rational, mature adults to keep them in check. You can be really angry, but you do not have to react with anger. You always have a choice. 

I got a lot more out of this book than I had expected. I'm pleasantly surprised.