Book excerpt: “An antidote to emotional overwhelm—a powerful way to discover how useful your emotions can be in guiding you towards your best life.” —Marci Shimoff, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Happy for No Reason Award-winning author, producer, and founder of Project Happiness, Randy Taran knows that every emotion, feeling, and mental state has the power to bring us back to our true essence. Emotional Advantage is your guide to getting there. We’ve learned a lot about the science of happiness and positive psychology, but what about the full range of human emotions, all of which factor into the human experience? What do we do when happiness eludes us—when life does not go as planned? It turns out that even negative emotions have something to offer, if we know how to learn from them. Have you ever woken up in a fog of feelings and felt directionless? Or maybe it was hard to pinpoint exactly what you were feeling, but it wasn’t where you wanted to be? What if we could actually use our feelings as a pathway to guide us back to our inner compass? What if, like alchemists, we had the tools to transform our emotions to take charge of creating our very best life? What if we could comprehend how even the most troublesome emotions are sending messages to alert, protect, and fuel us forward? Neuroscience reveals that to understand and utilize any emotion, we need to “name it to tame it.” Emotional Advantage shows us how a new perspective on fear can move us to courage, how guilt can clarify our values, and how anger can help us create healthy boundaries. “A guidebook to embracing the real version of yourself. If you’ve ever had to hide your feelings, or if you ever experience guilt or regret, you’ll feel like it’s written directly for you.” —Chris Guillebeau, author of The Happiness of Pursuit