The Emotional Calendar: Understanding Seasonal Influences and Milestones to Become Happier, More Fulfilled, and in Control of Your Life

John R. Sharp

Macmillan, Jan 4, 2011 - Self-Help - 288 pages

A leading Harvard psychiatrist reveals how our emotional lives are profoundly shaped by the seasons, and how to recognize our own seasonal patterns and milestones

In two decades of psychiatry practice, John R. Sharp has worked with many people who experienced the same emotional distresses at specific times of the year—a young woman who became depressed before Thanksgiving, a middle-aged man who felt anxious about making his summer travel plans, people who made uncharacteristically extreme decisions as spring approached.

In The Emotional Calendar, Sharp reveals how environmental, psychological, and cultural forces profoundly affect the way we feel, and how the enduring effects of personal anniversaries can influence our moods and behavior year after year. Sharp also illustrates a wide range of individual responses to cultural phenomena: some people feel anxious at the start of a new school year or are undone by the prospect of tax season while others are buoyed by the start of a sports season.

Sharp shows us how to recognize the milestones on our own emotional calendars, providing guidance for how to break stifling patterns and remedy destructive moods. This empathetic and deeply resonant book will help readers reach an emotional balance for the years ahead.

Contents

• The Emotional Calendar: 7
• o THE FOUR SEASONS: 31
• Supercharged Summer: 39
• The Wide Hand of Winter: 63
• What Do You Want?: 75
• Z THE ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS: 99
• Living in Light and Dark: 110
• The Weather of Catastrophe: 129
• ITS THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN: 149
• Looking Outward Looking Inward: 201
• Seasonal Embrace: 243
• Notes: 249
• Acknowledgments: 259

About the author

John R. Sharp, M.D., is a psychiatrist and neuropsychiatrist who serves on the medical staff at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He is on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and he divides his time between Boston and Los Angeles.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Emotional Calendar: Understanding Seasonal Influences and Milestones to Become Happier, More Fulfilled, and in Control of Your Life
• Author: John R. Sharp
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2011
• ISBN: 1429974702, 9781429974707
• Length: 288 pages
• Subjects: Self-Help / Emotions; Self-Help / Mood Disorders / General