Our society is in the midst of an emotional meltdown. People are restless, volatile, our tempers about to blow. In the past year [2009], Prozac was prescribed for over thirty million people. Domestic violence occurs in one out of six households. Fifty percent of drivers who're cut off respond with horn honking, yelling, obscene gestures, or even road rage. Half of our marriages end in divorce.

None of this is how we want life to be. Our pressure cooker society pushes us to our emotional limits. We deserve relief from getting crucified by daily stresses. We deserve to be happier, to be more comfortable in our own skins, to have nurturing relationships. . . .It's lunacy to put up with being chronically anxious, fatigued, or depressed as so many of us have. I rebel against that cheerless status quo, and hope you will too. . . .

Though we commonly think of freedom as uncensored speech, emancipation from slavery, and the right to vote and worship as we choose, you can't achieve total freedom until you learn to take charge of emotions, instead of them running you. This is a radical paradigm shift we all can make, regardless of our present anxieties or past hardships.

Judith Orloff, Emotional Freedom