If you only ever buy one book to help you make your way through this beautiful, complex, frustrating and stress-making world, make it this one. In fact, buy this and you will need no other. Drawing on his experience as a counsellor, analyst and teacher, Dr Jean-Christophe Martini brings together insights into creativity, philosophy and common-sense to offer simple - but never patronising or simplistic - guidance on dealing with the biggest problem we all face in life: ourselves. The underlying objective of this book is to get us each to understand - and welcome - the fact that whilst there are many things going on around us that might impinge on our ability to stay calm and live happily, we and we alone control our feelings. And in the end, how we feel dictates how we function - in the everyday waft and weave of modern life, but more importantly still, in work, play and love. So, this book offers well-researched advice on how to think creatively. Why? What is the significance of that? The point Dr Martini gets across is this: as often as not, the past is a problem for us all - lingering there are memories of disappointments, of opportunities missed, of rejection and loss, of us failing to be who we'd always promised ourselves we would be. So, what can we do with all of that? One of two options: learn to forget it; or find within it something to celebrate - some genuine lesson or strength that can help us make a better present. And for either of those options we need the ability to think carefully, cleverly and creatively. The book also offers a short tour of some fundamentally important philosophy, essentially that devoted to the use of Free Will. For example, if you thought Nietzsche was not for you, think again - Dr Martini shows how his philosophy is actually the most optimistic around. But optimism alone won't make your world a better place. In the end, you have got to work harder at making use of your past and facing up to the challenges of your present. The book pulls no punches - if you think the world is against you then you are just not working hard enough at influencing it towards your will. Acknowledge that truth, and the twin props of creativity and optimistic philosophy will get you through. Life, Dr Martini argues, exists in the present tense. The past may shape it, but we must never be a prisoner of it. Rather, we must always be conscious players in the present and so careful creators of our own future. To help us achieve that he ends his book with three 'Rules' for living calmer; for avoiding stress and disappointment by dealing with things when they happen. Follow the Rules and don't look back