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The Nine Rooms of Happiness: Loving Yourself, Finding Your Purpose, and Getting Over Life's Little Imperfections Audiobook
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(2.05) - 294 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Ask any woman how she's feeling. Even when things look pretty darn great from the outside, chances are that at least one thing (and it may seem minor to others) is nagging at her, making her feel less than spectacular, bringing her down: I'm too fat. My husband doesn't help enough around the house. My friend is going to be mad if I don't call her back. Why don't my kids try harder at school? My job is less than inspiring. Whatever happened to that old boyfriend, the one who got away?
Whether it's the size of our thighs or our bank accounts, there always seems to be something that isn't measuring up to our high standards—and we let the dissatisfaction spill over into other areas of our lives, distracting us from taking pleasure in everything that's going right.
In The Nine Rooms of Happiness, Lucy Danziger, editor in chief of Self magazine, and women's health psychiatrist Catherine Birndorf use the metaphor of a house to release us from this phenomenon. In this house, the living room is where we deal with friendships and our social life; the bedroom is where we explore intimacy, romance, relationships, and sex; the bathroom is for issues relating to health and body image; the kitchen is for nourishment and the division of chores; and so on. Our "inner house" can have eight beautifully designed, neat and tidy rooms and one messy one, and still we focus on the mess.
The Nine Rooms of Happiness pinpoints common self-destructive patterns of behavior and offers key processes that will help listeners clean up their emotional architecture. After each room is "clean," Danziger and Birndorf show us how we can spend time on ourselves figuring out what is most meaningful to us—finding larger passion and purpose that makes returning to the rest of our house a pleasure, no matter what calamity or mess awaits.
The result? This book will help you think differently about the things that are bringing you down and be able to live a happier, more joy-filled life, in every room of your emotional house.
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"Interesting way of looking at life. I wouldn't say it's my favorite "self help" book but I really enjoyed the thoughts and the quotes and all the stories. "
— Katy (4 out of 5 stars)
The Nine Rooms of Happiness Listener Reviews
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" This sounded like a great book, but I was disappointed to find that many of the examples didn't really pertain to myself or my current situation. I suppose they are more broad and not specific to appeal to a wide audience of women, but I'm all about specifics. Also, in reading the few stories that did pertain to my life closely I was lost at the end not feeling like I had found a "solution/direction" to head next to solve that problem. I love the overall metaphor of the house and especially the question about asking "What room are you in?" I think I will find this very helpful in the future for organizing my thoughts and keeping them all in their place. Overall I believe reading this book will help me tame some of my issues, but I would have loved a little more practice/specific instruction. The pearls are also wonderful and I will hang onto those for future reference. I guess what I would ultimately wanted would be to find the root of my problems more than read about someone else's, especially when I found it hard to relate to most of them. I found the overall concept more helpful and something I would relate to others, more than the book itself. "
— Linda, 2/14/2014 -
" This book will impact every reader differently based on where they are in life, their past, their present and their future. It's at times hard to follow but at minimum EVERY woman should read the epilogue. For me, it was the most meaningful and moving and takes about five minutes to read but will make you think for hours after you have read it. "
— Kristen, 2/8/2014 -
" I didn't like the concept of the book and never finished it. "
— Kaprice, 12/24/2013 -
" Interesting concepts and advice from people who have heard it all. "
— Sarah, 12/17/2013 -
" Interesting way of looking at life. I wouldn't say it's my favorite "self help" book but I really enjoyed the thoughts and the quotes and all the stories. "
— Katy, 12/13/2013 -
" I was certainly not the target audience for this book. It took me forever to finish it because I could not relate & just thought the quality of the book was poor. "
— Kelly, 12/7/2013 -
" Okay. The writer got a column in Oprah's magazine as a result of this book. Magazine editor writing with her therapist about managing using a house as a metaphor. "
— Carol, 12/4/2013 -
" Very thought provoking read. It really forces one to take a good look at their internal house. Helped me identify the source for some of my reactions/behaviors. "
— Juli, 10/18/2013 -
" Typical self-help book, easy to read. "
— Barbara, 10/11/2013 -
" I liked this book pretty well. A lot of it was same old same old, but I enjoyed the case studies. "
— Bridget, 6/16/2013 -
" Ah, it wasn't really anything new. "
— Tracy, 3/5/2013 -
" Their framework is okay for breaking down an issue. The stories were generally interesting -- I suppose it is interesting to hear about others problems, makes you feel part of the norm. The commentary/writing is not great. "
— 'jean, 2/25/2013 -
" I liked this book. It was written by a psychologist as well as a writer from Self magazine. I found a lot of great quotes in this self-help book. "
— Lesley, 12/16/2012 -
" I had high hopes for this book, but was disappointed. It was geared more towards someone who is not single and childless. There was not a single chapter in this book that gave me insight into my life. HUGE disappointment. "
— Dawn, 10/10/2012 -
" Oh my god. Must stop getting self-help books from the library. It's just that the selection of e-books are all so trashy! But why must these awful self-help books be so self-congratulatory? Then it's even worse when they're awful. "
— Kris, 3/21/2012 -
" Their framework is okay for breaking down an issue. The stories were generally interesting -- I suppose it is interesting to hear about others problems, makes you feel part of the norm. The commentary/writing is not great. "
— 'jean, 4/5/2011 -
" Oh my god. Must stop getting self-help books from the library. It's just that the selection of e-books are all so trashy! But why must these awful self-help books be so self-congratulatory? Then it's even worse when they're awful. "
— Kris, 4/2/2011 -
" Ah, it wasn't really anything new. "
— Tracy, 3/1/2011 -
" I really liked the concept of the "rooms" in our emotional house and some of the parallels that she draws from how we "clean" these rooms. However, I guess I was looking for something more and I wish I was able to say what that was but know I didn't find it here. "
— Holland, 2/8/2011 -
" Okay. The writer got a column in Oprah's magazine as a result of this book. Magazine editor writing with her therapist about managing using a house as a metaphor. "
— Carol, 11/23/2010 -
" I liked this book. It was written by a psychologist as well as a writer from Self magazine. I found a lot of great quotes in this self-help book. "
— Lesley, 7/28/2010 -
" I liked this book pretty well. A lot of it was same old same old, but I enjoyed the case studies. "
— Bridget, 6/20/2010 -
" I didn't like the concept of the book and never finished it. "
— Kaprice, 5/20/2010 -
" Interesting concepts and advice from people who have heard it all. "
— Sarah, 5/6/2010
About the Authors
Lucy Danziger has been editor in chief of Self magazine for more than eight years and has grown the circulation to over six million monthly readers. She lives in New York City.
Catherine Birndorf, MD, is founding director of the Payne Whitney Women’s Program at the New York–Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, where she continues to work as a senior consultant. She is also a clinical associate professor of psychiatry and obstetrics and gynecology. Dr. Birndorf is a regular mental health columnist for Self magazine and has appeared on numerous television programs, including the Today Show, Good Morning America, and the Early Show.
About Marguerite Gavin
Marguerite Gavin is a seasoned theater veteran, a five-time nominee for the prestigious Audie Award, and the winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones and Publishers Weekly awards. She has been an actor, director, and audiobook narrator for her entire professional career. With over four hundred titles to her credit, her narration spans nearly every genre, from nonfiction to mystery, science fiction, fantasy, romance, and children’s fiction. AudioFile magazine says, “Marguerite Gavin…has a sonorous voice, rich and full of emotion.”