Erin Olivo is a licensed clinical psychologist and has been an assistant clinical professor of medical psychology at the Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons since 2004. She is the former director of the Columbia Integrative MedicineProgram, which she headed in collaboration with Dr. Mehmet Oz. You may visit her at www.erinolivo.com.

Olivo notes at the outset that the high level of stress and discontent in our lives comes from the ways in which deal with or avoid (overlook, ignore, deny, misunderstand, misinterpret, suppress, or just poorly handle) our emotions. They "drive the decisions you make, the actions you take, what you think, and yes, how you feel."

After covering mindfulness as the wisdom of being in the present moment, Olivo examines the role of emotion in the brain. She offers Wise Mind Review exercise to do regularly when monitoring your emotions, especially the Big Eight — love, happiness, fear, anger, sadness, shame, jealousy, and disgust.

Olivo shows that it is possible to change how we feel by changing what we think. Some major trouble-makers are black-and-white thinking, jumping to conclusions, catastrophizing, overgeneralizing, unrealistic expectations, and discounting the positive. We contribute to our own downfall by following negative core beliefs about ourselves.

We can also change how we feel by transforming our behavior. Just in case you don't take this all in the first time around, Olivo presents a course titled "Six Weeks to Wise Mind Living."