In Chapter 3, Brown explores the “Places We Go When Things Don’t Go As Planned,” which range from boredom to regret. Brown emphasizes the importance of not letting comparison ruin our relationships with others or our acceptance of ourselves. Next, she analyzes “Places We Go When We Compare” in Chapter 2. In Chapter 1, Brown analyzes “Places We Go When Things are Uncertain or Too Much.” She outlines emotions like stress, overwhelms, fear, vulnerability, etc. In her work as an emotions researcher, her goal in this book is to give the reader language for what is happening on a biological and biographical level to help them belong to themselves and belong to others while making sense of our human experience. While Brown no longer believes we should read others to please them, she still sees how powerful emotions are, yet most people seem unaware of what is driving them. This caused her to become overwhelmed and anxious because she would hang on others’ words and actions to try to know how to please them or belong.

Through observation, she knew how to read people and predict what they would do or what they wanted from others. In the introduction, Brown explains how she has been a student of emotions since she was young. Brown’s goal in this work is to make the book’s descriptions of the human experience more relatable, with plenty of examples for the reader to visualize. This is Brown’s first book to be published with extensive artwork/visual aids, similar to a traditional coffee table book in its visual layout.

Atlas brene brown