Shift Your Mood
Unleash Your Life!

Your pathway to inner happiness

Shift Your Mood has just been released!

Click on this link to order your copy now:

Shift Your Mood: Unleash Your Life! Your Pathway to Inner Happiness

Endorsements and Reviews of Shift Your Mood:

"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)

"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!"

—Marci Shimoff, New York Times bestselling author of Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out

"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."

—Rick Hanson, Ph.D. Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom. Co-author of Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

"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."

—Manuela Mischke Reeds, MA, MFT. Co-director, Hakomi Institute of California.

"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."

—Christopher Peterson, PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan. Author of A Primer in Positive Psychology

"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

Hijacked by your moods?

Moods can:

• Make or break your relationship.
• Get you a promotion, or get you fired.
• Help you feel better, or make you sick—

Yet once you’re able to manage your moods more effectively, you’ll maintain your emotional balance even when you’re faced with significant challenges.

I developed the programs and products of Shift Your Mood™ to help you become aware of how moods create tension in your body. You will learn how to:
Release emotional tension, and shift to the source of your own love and wisdom.

Then you’re more likely to follow through on actions that will help you meet your goals.

Shift Your Mood combines mindfulness and body awareness with insights from positive psychology’s “neuroscience of happiness.”

You will discover how to heal from previous wounds, and follow through on your best intentions. Instead of feeling controlled by your current mood, you can expand your options: not only about what sort of mood you’d rather be in, but also a greater choice in how you live your life.

This has great implications for emotional healing and recovery from compulsive behaviors and obsessions. Yet Shift Your Mood is not just about healing; as you gain more emotional balance, you’ll begin to thrive in many areas of your life:

• Release emotional tension—
so you can shift to the source of your own internal wisdom.

• Expand your capacity for love and compassion—
so you can enhance emotional intimacy and nurture your relationships.

• Develop your creativity and memory—
so work flows more enjoyably, with greater success.

• Reduce anxiety and stress—
so you can relax and have more fun.

• Cultivate mindfulness—
so you can be more attuned to the present moment.

• Discover purpose, meaning, and spirituality—
so you can live life to the fullest.

• Deepen your experience of contentment and well-being—
so you can be calmer, wiser, and happier!

Do You Have a Set-Point of Happiness?

But research has also demonstrated that only fifty percent of our “set point” is genetic—so we have a lot of room to raise our basic level of contentment in our lives!

There are a number of techniques that have been proven to raise this set-point: meditating, exercise, helping others, and gratitude, among others.

The good news is: they work! And even though they are well worth the effort, the fact is that most people, after an initial burst of enthusiasm, fail to consistently put them into practice.

Another approach is cognitive therapy, which can help you counter irrational beliefs and change the way you think—but there’s often a nagging feeling left over, that undermines the changes you actually want to make.

Why is that? Negative thinking has such a firm grip on many of us simply because it's an incredibly strong habit! We also evolved during a time when it made sense to watch your back, and be suspicious of strangers. Whenever something distressing happens, our minds tend to follow the groove of our habitual mental pathways—which often include pessimistic thoughts and negative beliefs.

Having the intention to be more positive can of course be very helpful—but as many of us know, good intentions are often not enough to sustain a substantial change in behavior.

But what if you could

Boost Your Happiness Quotient

Well actually, you can!
I have developed an amazingly simple but effective method to help you gain immediate access to the source of your own love, wisdom, and happiness.

Not only is this technique simple, it’s easy, pleasant, and fun.

Plus, you’ll experience immediate benefits:

You’ll feel more joy, less stress, and frankly you’ll probably just be a lot more fun to be around!
(need we mention, sexier!)

Each time you make this shift, you will automatically train your mind to create new pathways in your brain. As you strengthen your ability to shift out of old patterns, you will develop your own pathway to happiness.

Shift Your Mood will help you become aware of how moods express themselves physically. Instead of trying to escape bad moods by using drugs, alcohol, or compulsive behaviors that can make things worse, you'll become more mindful of what's actually happening in your own body. This prepares you to shift to a more resourced place of inner wisdom, vitality, and aliveness.

Once you make this shift, you will know on a gut level how you'd rather live your life: in a constricted, uptight mood, or with open-hearted joy, contentment, and well-being.

By boosting your set-point of happiness, it has a rapidly escalating effect: You’ll be even more likely to follow through on some of the other proven techniques for enhancing happiness and well-being, as you live a much more fulfilling life.

Shift Your Mood can help you realize what you are not: your thoughts, the role you play, your stories, or your moods—plus some practical ways to deal with hassles at work, arguments with loved ones, getting stuck in traffic, panic attacks, compulsive behavior, or even romantic obsessions.

Some of the people you'll meet in this book:

• Jack felt hassled at work, yet was able to overcome the negative assumptions he had internalized, and learned to assert his needs more effectively.

• Molly’s job as a dog-walker was in jeopardy because she couldn’t stop checking to make sure she had locked the door when she dropped off her dogs. As she became more mindful of her actions, she was able to feel the internal certainty that she had completed her task, and let it go.

• Nathaniel was constantly criticized by his father, and no matter how successful he was, he always felt like an impostor. He was able to counter his perfectionism and get in touch with his true interests.

• Alice was hung up on a soldier she met in the service, and became obsessed with the belief that his mother was getting in the way of their relationship. She was finally able to register, on a gut level, that he really wasn’t available.

• Julio had panic attacks during his calculus and physics exams. Even though he knew his material, and had been accepted to graduate school, he was in danger of flunking his best courses! Rather than obsessing about his potential failure, he learned how to relax and shift his attention to the task at hand.

You will soon discover how to shift out of the vortex of previous patterns. In the beginning, it may take more than a moment to catch yourself. But as you become more adept at making this shift, you’ll increase your ability to soothe yourself in the face of whatever life throws at you.

Breaking free from negative conditioning unleashes the expression of your natural growth. Shift Your Mood will help you grasp that “you already are whatever you’re seeking,” not just intellectually, but through a deeply felt, visceral realization: You are consciousness itself, steeped in grace and heartfelt wisdom.

Throughout this book, you’ll have numerous opportunities to check out what it’s like to shift your mood. So I invite you along on this journey towards emotional well-being, conscious awareness, and inner wisdom.

Contents of Shift Your Mood

1. Shift Your Mood—
From emotional tension to your own inner wisdom

Habitual Pathways

Your Guard Dog

How to Shift Your Mood

2. You Are Not What You Think—
Not your thoughts, your role, or your story

You Are Not What You Think

You Are Not the Role You Play

The Impostor

Role Diffusion

You Are Not Your Story

3. Settle Your Mind—
Calm, steady, and clear

Mindfulness for the Klutz

What is Mindfulness?

Twelve Benefits of Mindfulness

How to Become More Mindful

Thinking Is Not an Enemy

Mindfulness and Mood

4. When the Going Gets Tough—
The Tough Keep Cool

Hassles at Work

Road Rage!

Fellow-feeling, Even for Strangers

What about Grief?

Physical Pain

The Wounded Healer

5. Free Your Mind!
Cut through your obsessions

Four Ways to Get a Grip on Obsessive Thinking

Three Natural Cures for Obsessive Insomnia

The Dog Walker Who Couldn’t Stop Checking

Romantic Obsession

Intrusive Memories—and a Missing Experience

6. Self-Soothing—
Calm your inner Guard Dog

Seven Steps to Calm Your Guard Dog and Tame the Inner Critic

Panic Attacks

Relaxation Exercise

Developing Self-Love

Loving Presence

7. Boost Your Happiness Quotient!
Raise your “set-point” of happiness

The Paradox of Seeking Happiness

The Science of Happiness

Flow

Follow Your Bliss

Proven Ways to Raise Your Set-Point of Happiness

8. Steeped in Grace—
You are consciousness itself

Clear Consciousness

The Perfectly Ordinary

Steeped in Grace

Click for an excerpt from this chapter: Steeped in Grace.

9. Got It, Lost It—
What’s happening right now?

Impermanence

Catching Ourselves

10. Heartfelt Wisdom—
You already are whatever you’re seeking

Developing Compassion

Wisdom

The Golden Shadow

You Already Are Whatever You’re Seeking

Let us know how Shift Your Mood has worked for you!

I would love to hear how Shift Your Mood has helped you:

* Feel happier or calmer

* Resolve inner (or outer) conflicts, or

* Get in touch with your own spiritual awakening!

Scroll down to see contributions from other visitors to this page!

Pat Your Own Back Once in Awhile  In the section on road rage Rik speaks of what I call random acts of kindness. Like helping a stranger load their shopping bags into their car, or helping ...

Here are a few experiences
from people who have made this shift:

"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."

—James Guay, MFT, private practice in San Francisco.



* You can e-mail me with questions about my practice, or schedule an appointment through this link: Contact Rik!

* You can also reach me directly at 415 821-7665 in San Francisco during normal (Pacific time) business hours.