This month I am featuring Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience by Brene Brown.
If you’re into self-help books, you’re probably already familiar with Brene Brown and her body of research. If not, google her. She has so much great content and research to learn from. This new book is a great resource for anyone looking to dive deeper into the nuance between different kinds of feelings.
Brene explains how the more clearly we are able to articulate how we feel, the better we do at regulating our emotions. This is huge because often we get stuck on the big three (happy, sad, mad) which is not as descriptive or helpful to communicate as feeling excited, disappointed, or frustrated, for example.
If you feel like you or your child could benefit from labeling and communicating emotions more effectively, give this book a read. The book is definitely for adults, but if you read it, you may be better prepared to help your child through modeling how to describe your emotions more precisely. The book reviews 87 emotions and explains the distinctions between each. The emotions are grouped into different clusters. For example: one section, called “Things Are Uncertain or Too Much”, compares and distinguishes between stress, overwhelm, anxiety, worry, and other similarly categorized emotions.
I listened to the audiobook which was enjoyable, however, this might be one where you would like a hard copy for reference. If you’re not a reader, there is a mini-series on HBO Max that features the content from the book. Check out one of these resources soon and all hail Brene for her outstanding contributions to helping people gain peace and clarity in their own mental health journeys.