Rik provides a quick and easy method to help readers release emotional tension, and shift to the source of their own inner wisdom.
When the Going Gets Tough—
How to stay as cool as Obama!
Here's what your readers, listeners, and viewers will learn:
How to deal with hard times and difficult situations, such as:
* Road rage
* Conflict at home or at work
* Tough economic times
* Performance anxiety
* Obsessive thinking
* Self-defeating behaviors.
With this breakthrough approach, Isensee claims “You don’t have to get stuck in the vortex of every negative event that’s ever happened to you. In fact, you can develop new, more positive pathways in your brain.”
Try this breakthrough approach to healing, growth, and spiritual awakening!
* Reduce anxiety and stress
* Engage in meaningful work
* Enhance intimacy with loved ones
* Deepen spiritual realization
* Be calmer, wiser, and happier!
Let Shift Your Mood guide you on your pathway to inner happiness.
“Using the guided assistance from your book, I quickly realized why I was so triggered, then felt calm and astoundingly clear. It was a triumph!” —Alecia Vultaggio, San Diego
Potential Show Ideas:
Dealing with anger:
* How to chill when you get stuck in traffic.
* How to keep your cool when your boss is being a jerk.
Dealing with anxiety:
* How to prepare for a big test/game/presentation/performance.
* How to be yourself on your first date with someone you have a crush on.
* An easy, do-anytime relaxation exercise
Dealing with obsession:
* Four Ways to Get a Grip on Obsessive Thinking
* Three Natural Cures for Obsessive Insomnia
* Romantic Obsession—how to get over someone you know isn't good for you.
Self-esteem:
* Seven Steps to Tame Your Inner Critic
* Overcome Panic Attacks
* The key to developing self-love
Self-improvement:
* How to stop doing something you want to do, but you know will get you into trouble.
* How to get yourself to do something you know is good for you, but you don't really feel like doing it.
Happiness:
* The paradox of seeking happiness: like chasing rainbows?
* Boost Your Happiness Quotient:14 Proven Ways to Raise Your Set-Point of Happiness
Possible Interview Questions:
Why is it important to shift your mood?
Isn't shifting your mood like putting on a happy face?
What are the benefits of shifting your mood?
What are some good ways to handle anger?
How can you feel less anxious?
What's the easiest way to get over an obsession?
How can you feel better about yourself?
You compare seeking happiness with chasing rainbows. Doesn't everyone want to be happy?
You write about how to raise your "set-point" of happiness. What is a "set-point?"
What can you do to raise it?
Is Shift Your Mood a spiritual approach, or psychological?
What is mindfulness?
How can being more mindful affect your mood?
What's the difference between meditating and shifting your mood?
So let's say I'm stuck in traffic, I'm late for work, and feeling really irritated at the guy who just cut me off. How can I shift my mood?
Why don't we do the things we know would be good for us?
Listen to Rik on The Doug Noll Show:
(Click on each segment, then if you'd like to skip the commercials, go on to the next segment as soon as the music comes up for the commercial break.)
Author photo:
Higher resolution (300 dpi) photo available on request.
Shift Your Mood book cover:
Higher resolution (300 dpi) photo available on request.
Advance Endorsements for Shift Your Mood:
"Shift Your Mood combines the science of happiness with an awareness of how emotional distress shows up in your body. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to experience a happier life!"
"Rik Isensee has done a masterful job of integrating scientifically-based yet cutting edge material from psychology, brain science, and spirituality into a comprehensive collection of practical tools you can use every day to feel better, happier, and more loving. Rik's sincerity and warm-heartedness make each page glow. This book is a gem."
"Shift Your Mood invites readers straight into the goodness of their own hearts. I particularly enjoyed Rik’s playful invitations to experiment with a variety of embodied and mindful exercises. This book will help you navigate the inner pitfalls of your body-mind, as you reclaim the organic vitality of your own life."
"This is an engaging book that contains lots of good advice about becoming happier. Informed by research findings from the new field of positive psychology as well as venerable strategies from mindfulness meditation, Shift Your Mood presents a balanced and plausible formula for moving beyond where one is."
"Shift Your Mood is great—very well thought out, lively, and inspiring; crisp, thorough, and engaging."
—Mariah Fenton Gladis, MSS, QCSW. Founder and Clinical Director, Pennsylvania Gestalt Center. Author of Tales of a Wounded Healer
Reviews:
5.0 out of 5 stars "A highly recommended read for those who want to break out of the doldrums." —Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
"Mood is an enigma that affects much of a person's day. Shift Your Mood is a book discussing mood and how to improve it in one's life. With many tips and advice on brightening one's mood, as well as an explanation of the benefits that one will enjoy from an improved demeanor, author Rik Isensee's book gives sound advice. Shift Your Mood is a highly recommended read for those who want to break out of the doldrums."—Midwest Book Review (Oregon, Wisconsin)
Review from The Doug Noll Show:
For this edition of The Peacemaker's Bookshelf, I have chosen Shift Your Mood by Rik Isensee. Rik is a psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker in San Francisco.
I have talked a lot about emotional intelligence and have had many guests join me on the show to talk about the importance of emotional intelligence in creating inner and outer peace. Recall that emotional intelligence consists of five skills: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social communication. Peace is difficult to achieve in the absence of emotional intelligence because we become so caught up in the chaotic emotions of conflict.
Shift Your Mood is a simple, short book that teaches you the first two skills of emotional intelligence-how to become more aware of your feelings, moods, and emotions and how to regulated them effectively. Rik takes complex subjects and distills them down into easily digestible and practical ideas. For example, Rik says that the purpose of mindfulness is to develop stability in our chaotic minds, so that we are not so vulnerable to being hijacked by every passing thought, feeling, reaction, or mood. This is a great explanation of why being mindful is important.
Rik includes lots of action experiments most of which take less than 4 minutes. As you read the book, you can try the action experiments and see for yourself what works. After the basic principles are explained and illustrated, Rik takes on the common disturbances of life such as conflict with others, self-condemnation, and obsessive thoughts. The remainder of the book is devoted to cultivating happiness, bliss, and grace.
Rik has really done us a great service by distilling the concept of mindfulness and the ideas behind traditions such as vipassana meditation and stating them in a clear, modern manner. This is a great book to help us develop our emotional intelligence. The book is Shift Your Mood by Rik Isensee. —Doug Noll
Testimonials:
"Rik has developed a way to powerfully and immediately change distressing emotions. I worked with his method when I was in the grip of a very negative mood. My thoughts and feelings seemed stuck in resentment and fear. Much to my relief, I experienced a shift out of this negativity to a more peaceful and calm state.
"The best news is that I've been able to access this more positive mood in the weeks following my initial success! When negative thoughts and emotions threaten to come rushing back in, it's very empowering to realize I can choose to feel better. Now I have a solid and reliable way to help me shift to a better mood."
—Lori Schwanbeck, San Anselmo
"It wasn't long after reading Rik Isensee's practical tips to shift my mood that I tried a couple of his techniques. Sure enough, I was able to adjust my mood during a taxing meeting at work, and then again when I was getting impatient with my kids at home. I mentally put myself in the relaxed state that I feel when I listen to music on a sunny day in the backyard. That grumpy feeling I was so tired of just melted away."
—David Bibus, Seattle
"Seething over a conflict, I mounted my bicycle trainer for catharsis. Twenty minutes into my sweat I remembered your suggestions from Shift Your Mood. Using the guided assistance from your book, I quickly realized why I was so triggered, then felt calm and astoundingly clear. It was a triumph!"
—Alecia Vultaggio, San Diego
"As a therapist, I've used the techniques that Rik describes in Shift Your Mood with much success. On one such occasion, a client was able to get unstuck from his cyclical pattern of being attracted to his own negative thoughts. He felt a moment of freedom and expansiveness which he could build on. Being able to recognize his involvement in suffering enabled him to break free from this pattern and more fully enjoy his life."
