The Nine Rooms of Happiness: Loving Yourself, Finding Your Purpose, and Getting Over Life's Little Imperfections [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Lucy Danziger (Author), Catherine Birndorf (Author), Marguerite Gavin (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2010

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.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

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. Lucy lives in New York City. Catherine Birndorf, M.D., 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. Catherine 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. Marguerite Gavin has recorded over three hundred audiobooks in nearly every genre. A nominee for the prestigious Audie Award, she was won both AudioFile Earphones and Publishers Weekly Listen-Up awards. AudioFile magazine says "Marguerite Gavin is an accomplished storyteller . . . with a sonorous voice, rich and full of emotion, she easily delivers wry humor and moves smoothly from accent to accent, recalling multiple characters perfectly." Marguerite divides her time as an actress between the sound studio and classical theater. She lives with her family in the Washington, D.C., area.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged,Library - Unabridged CD edition (March 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400146461
• ISBN-13: 978-1400146468
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 6.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Lucy Danziger has been editor in chief of Self magazine for more than eight years and has grown the circulation to over 6 million monthly readers. Catherine Birndorf, M.D., is a psychiatrist and the founding director of the Payne Whitney Women's Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. She is also a contributing columnist for Self. Both women live in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

94 of 109 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Focuses too much on parenting issues, March 4, 2010

By 

Beth "Beth" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Nine Rooms of Happiness: Loving Yourself, Finding Your Purpose, and Getting Over Life's Little Imperfections (Hardcover)

I know my husband and I are in the minority because we don't have kids (and aren't planning to). This book seems to focus a lot on parenting, and as a result it does not interest me. That's a shame, because I think it could be a very interesting subject if it wasn't so skewed in that direction.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy To Be Reading This, March 3, 2010

By 

Kristen Dollard "calm mom" (NYC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Nine Rooms of Happiness: Loving Yourself, Finding Your Purpose, and Getting Over Life's Little Imperfections (Hardcover)

What do I want to be when I grow up? Happy!

This book gets your attention with revealing women's stories (one gives her husband sex daily so that he won't stray and another is overwhelmed with guilt because she has her dream career but is not physically close to her family.) After each "vignette" there is a one act play-like workshop where the experts offer simple strategies to move through the issue and offer simple ways to find some personal resolution. The result: we as the audience confront a little bit our own self especially the parts that may be stuck. We get a little closer to being more honest about who we really are and what we really want through women who share their own stories. "Nine Rooms" explains that balance in the tradition sense is overrated and must be self-defined. Real contentment comes from being able to look at every area of your life--family, friends, work, sex and relationships, and even fitness-- as an opportunity to make peace with the imperfect. Plus the cute little website ([...]) is a lot of fun and I found out when I'm not trapped in the basement, I'm very into making a fuss about my tenth room. ([...])

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Therapy, But Pretty Close, April 4, 2010

By 

Sara E. Stollings (Livonia, MI United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Nine Rooms of Happiness: Loving Yourself, Finding Your Purpose, and Getting Over Life's Little Imperfections (Hardcover)

I am going through a really hard time and I often have trouble with happiness. And though it will take a lot to get me to the place I should be, reading this book gave me a lot of hope for a better future. While reading, I had a smile on my face and a sense of optimism that I rarely have any other time. It gave me a lot of the tools to start changing how I think and I would recommend it for any woman, period. Plus it is an amazing value, especially since it is hard cover. I would have paid even more for it, and I don't normally say that about anything.