Dwell: A Journal for Naming, Processing, and Embracing Your Emotions

This wise and inspiring book invites readers to welcome all of their emotions, positive or negative, to come sit and talk, as they would with a very good friend. Using personification as a tool, creative writing teacher and Positive Psychology practitioner Devon Loftus takes readers through a process of describing their emotions—joy, discomfort, anxiety, contentment—without judgment or shame. Thoughtful and comforting, this book will help readers reconnect to the place inside themselves where all their complex and beautiful emotions dwell. In poetic essays that serve as inspiration, Loftus personifies more than fifty emotions—such as Playfulness, a redhead with three freckles on her right cheek only her closest friends notice, or Love, who slowly brings every person she passes on the street to life—to encourage readers to sit down with their emotions in a creative and curious way. According to Loftus, when we allow ourselves to view our feelings without judgment, we are able to witness them (and therefore ourselves) more fully, with all of their quirks and humanness. is an invaluable tool for readers seeking greater self-understanding.