Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier

Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey promote the skill of emotional self-management as a tool to increase happiness, devoting half the book’s chapters to discussing this skill. Emotional self-management refers to the ability to recognize, understand, and regulate one’s own emotions effectively. It involves the conscious effort to navigate and control emotional responses, ensuring that emotions do not negatively impact decision-making, behavior, or overall well-being. This skill encompasses various aspects, including emotional awareness, emotional expression, and emotional regulation. The roots of emotional self-management can be traced to several psychological theories and frameworks. Reviewing some of the theories and frameworks that may have influenced Brooks’s research, as well as relevant spiritual perspectives that Winfrey has addressed in the past, can shed light on the authors’ emphasis of emotional self-management as a method of increasing personal happiness.

Emotional self-management draws on a combination of psychological theories and therapeutic approaches that emphasize the importance of recognizing and regulating emotions for personal and interpersonal well-being. One pivotal influence is the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI), which was first introduced by psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer and later popularized by Daniel Goleman. EI emphasizes the importance of recognizing, understanding, and regulating emotions in oneself and others.