An Intelligent Life

An Intelligent Life

'Don't worry, be happy' is easy to say but hard to do, because we have so little direct control over our feelings. Positive thinking is not enough; living intelligently is about positive action. An Intelligent Life is a highly practical instruction book to help you make your life happier. It is the result of Julian Short's thirty years of clinical practice as a psychiatrist and brings together ideas that he has seen help people understand themselves more clearly and make lasting changes. It is a book about love, individuality, relationships and self-respect. To feel good we need to act well. We see ourselves in the mirror of other people's reactions and if we want to like the person we see, we need the skills to give and get as much love as we can. Looking after ourselves means looking after our relationships. An Intelligent Life offers guidelines for maximising love and belonging, while simultaneously showing how to strengthen individuality. In the book Dr Short offers specific techniques for managing relationships with lovers, friends, parents and children.Despite its emphasis on control and personal effectiveness, ultimately living intelligently is not about winning, because the real measures of human worth are kindness and dignity, not success or status. An Intelligent Life is designed to show that we can lose and still like ourselves, liberating us to be hopeless at things, but sensational as people.