Navigate Your Emotions by Exploring Them Like Games by Victoria Ichizli-Bartels (Book Review #2256)

“Navigate Your Emotions” by Victoria Ichizli-Bartels presents a new and unique approach to understanding how to change how we feel. The author has developed an approach that is both playful and highly practical. With her combination of a kind, scientific, and empowering style, she provides an alternative to how we typically perceive our emotions (particularly those considered difficult). She asks readers to consider this: What if each of our emotional responses (even the worst ones) could be thought of as opportunities for us to “level up” in life’s game?

Ichizli-Bartels is not considered a traditional gamer but instead finds herself a “life gamer”, and she draws on her background in both engineering and anthropology, along with her philosophy of self-gamification, which converts the daily struggles that we face into games that we can win and that produce curiosity. Her approach makes the entire spectrum of emotions something we can explore, learn from, and even celebrate.

Rather than offering rigid theories, the author has provided many small, manageable missions (or gamified tools) for building emotional literacy, resilience, and creativity. In addition to naming your feelings like characters, you will also learn to invite them in (just as you would invite guests) and discover their meaning through imagination and storytelling. This book encourages you to think of each of your emotional responses (whether fear, guilt, sadness, or excitement) as a doorway into exploring your emotions rather than as a roadblock.

This is not a self-help book that promises immediate happiness or a checklist for permanent happiness, but rather something much more sustainable: a shift in how you view the possibilities of suffering through curiosity and mindfulness. “Navigate Your Emotions” also differs from the self-help genre in that it is very low-key, uses gentle humor, and conveys an underlying warmth. Its sophisticated yet approachable style makes it suitable for readers of all ages who want to play with rather than fight against their emotions.

For anyone interested in finding a creative way to deal with overwhelm, be more self-compassionate, and acknowledge the full spectrum of feelings that we each possess as human beings, this is a completely unique resource written by someone who believes that emotional intelligence can be more than a chore; it can actually be a game and one that you are already prepared to win.

Written by Jeyran Main

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