Big Feelings

From the duo behind the bestselling book No Hard Feelings and the wildly popular @LizandMollie Instagram, an insightful and approachable illustrated guide to handling our most difficult emotions.We all experience unwieldy feelings. But between our emotion-phobic society and the debilitating uncertainty of modern times, we usually don't know how to talk about what we're going through, much less handle it. Over the past year, Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy's online community has laughed and cried about productivity guilt, pandemic anxiety, and Zoom fatigue. Now, Big Feelings addresses anyone intimidated by oversized feelings they can't predict or control, offering the tools to understand what's really going on, find comfort, and face the future with a sense of newfound agency.Weaving surprising science with personal stories and original illustrations, each chapter examines one uncomfortable feeling-like envy, burnout, and anxiety-and lays out strategies for turning big emotions into manageable ones. You'll learn:How to end the cycle of intrusive thoughts brought on by regret, and instead use this feeling as a compass for making decisionsHow to identify what's behind your anger and communicate it productively, without putting people on the defensiveWhy we might be suffering from perfectionism even if we feel far from perfect, and how to detach your self-worth from what you doBig Feelings helps us understand that difficult emotions are not abnormal, and that we can emerge from them with a deeper sense of meaning. We can't stop emotions from bubbling up, but we can learn how to make peace with them.

GROWING PLATFORM: Liz and Mollie's platform has exploded since the publication of No Hard Feelings in 2019. Their writing and illustrations are regularly featured in the New York Times' "Smarter Living" section, the Harvard Business Review, and the Wall Street Journal. Their April 2020 Harvard Business Review piece, "How to Combat Zoom Fatigue," was among the most popular articles on the site for five weeks. Over the past year, Liz's illustrations have been on the front page of Reddit eight times, including a post that got 46k upvotes.ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS: With over 100 new original illustrations, this book will build off the success of No Hard Feelings's Instagrammable, gifty package.INFLUENTIAL FANS: Liz and Mollie have close relationships with Susan Cain, Kim Scott, Adam Grant, Dan Pink, Gretchen Rubin, and Arianna Huffington. Their star-studded list of contacts will blurb and promote the book on newsletters and websites.TIMELY MESSAGE: In these unprecedented times, more people than ever are seeking tools for managing their stress, isolation, grief, and other unwieldly emotions, with searches for "therapy" hitting an all-time high in 2020. Liz and Mollie offer practical insights and advice to an ongoing conversation.