How to Walk into a Room: The Art of Knowing When to Stay and When to Walk Away

by Emily P. Freeman

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Perfect for the self-help audience with a spiritual bent, How to Walk into a Room is all about spiritual formation and discernment. It's an actionable guide to finding peace and comfort in a changing world, all on a personal level.

New York Times Bestseller

If life were a house, then every room holds a story. What do we do when a room we’re in is no longer a room where we belong?

What do you do when you start to feel a shift and must decide if it’s time to make a change? When it comes to navigating big decisions about when to stay and go, how can we know for sure when the time is right? Though we enter and exit many rooms over the course of our life—jobs, relationships, communities, life stages—knowing how and when it’s time to leave is a decision that rarely has a clear answer.

Podcast host, spiritual director, and bestselling author of The Next Right Thing, Emily P. Freeman offers guidance to help us recognize when it’s time to move on from situations that no longer fit, allowing us to find new spaces where we can flourish and grow.

How to Walk Into a Room helps us begin to uncover the silent, nuanced, and hidden arrows for anyone asking questions like: How do I know if it’s time to move on? What if I stay and nothing changes? What if I leave and everything falls apart?

Through thought-provoking questions, spiritual practices, and personal stories, How to Walk into a Room will help you to know and name the caution flags in your current spaces, discern the difference between true peace and discomfort avoidance, navigate endings even when there is no closure, find peace for when you feel ready but it isn’t time, and courage for when it’s time but you don’t feel ready. 

For anyone standing in a threshold, here’s a book to help discern the how, when, and what now of walking out of rooms and into new ones with peace, confidence, and a whole heart.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063328846
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/12/2024
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	64,575
File size:	734 KB

About the Author

Emily P. Freeman is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of five books, including The Next Right Thing. As a spiritual director, workshop leader, and host of The Next Right Thing podcast, her most important work is to help create soul space and offer spiritual companionship and discernment for anyone struggling with decision fatigue. Emily holds a master’s degree in spiritual formation and leadership from Friends University.

Editorial Reviews

12/04/2023

The Next Right Thing podcaster Freeman (The Next Right Thing) offers a level-headed and spiritually inflected guide to starting over. According to Freeman, if life is a house, “at some point we’ll find ourselves... looking around at familiar rooms and questioning if it’s time to move on.” She encourages readers to recognize when a job, community, relationship, or commitment “no longer seem to fit”; take stock of power dynamics, expectations, and emotional associations (“What’s not working here? To what extent can I be myself in this room?”); and consult their own values to determine “what is worth protecting,” what should be cast away, and what must be changed if the decision is to stay. Later chapters touch on regrouping after seismic upheavals, finding closure (or accepting the lack thereof), and entering “new rooms” that better align with one’s personal values. Freeman’s abundant questions, prayers, and exercises will inspire productive reflection, but the emotional center of this guide is the author’s decision to leave their church of seven years after one of their children began questioning their sexuality. Freeman’s firsthand knowledge of how pain and resolve can coexist during life’s turning points suffuses the narrative. This is a wise and compassionate resource for those looking to begin their next chapter. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

We love a new beginning. But we hate our awkward (or painful) endings. Emily P. Freeman offers gentle and practical wisdom for those of us who need a framework to know when to stay and when to go. This book is a balm to the soul and a kick in the pants from the kindest person you need to read.”  — Kate Bowler, New York Times bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

"In a time when so many of us have lost old pathways of belonging, Emily meets us in the middle of our anxiety and uncertainty with practical wisdom, gentle companionship, and good questions. If you are in a season of evolution, this book is so much more than a framework for discernment, it is a map for loving God, loving ourselves, and loving our world right in the midst of our uncharted places." — Sarah Bessey, New York Times bestselling author of A Rhythm of Prayer

“Level-headed . . . wise and compassionate resource for those looking to begin their next chapter.”  — Publishers Weekly

"What a relief that How to Walk into a Room exists. Emily P. Freeman is thoughtful, wise, and the perfect teacher for this oft-ignored, deeply essential life skill of navigating life's unknowns. This is a book you'll read again and again." — Kendra Adachi, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Lazy Genius Kitchen and The Lazy Genius Way

“This well-written volume encourages users to ask the tough questions in their lives.” — Library Journal

“Our world is starved for wisdom—which is the knowledge of how to live well. This book is full of wisdom. The writing is classic Emily P. Freeman: elegant, gentle, thoughtful and honest. This book is uplifting and inspiring, while at the same time, challenging and convicting. Who can do that with such grace? Emily can, and does. I am so grateful for this book." — James Bryan Smith, author of The Good and Beautiful God

"From the first page, Emily's gentle guidance will wrap you in clarity and peace as you navigate tricky questions like: Do I belong here? What now? Is it even safe to be myself? If you've ever wondered what to do next, if you should stay or go, or how to walk in your purpose, How to Walk into a Room is for you. This book felt like a balm to a battered soul."  — Sharon McMahon, creator of Sharon Says So

"With the wisdom of a listener and the language of a poet, Emily P. Freeman helps us discern where our lives call for adjustments and how to move forward in peace. Generous and vulnerable, How to Walk into a Room seals Freeman’s fate as one of the great spiritual guides of our time."  — Shannan Martin, author of Start with Hello and The Ministry of Ordinary Places

"With tenderness, care, and vulnerability, Emily P. Freeman takes us by the hand and leads us on a journey of self-exploration for our own flourishing and as a consequence, the flourishing of those around us. This is a book I wish I had sooner and Emily is the spiritual director we’ve all needed."  — Kat Armas, author of Abuelita Faith and host of The Protagonistas podcast

“Endings can be challenging to navigate - indeed, this is one of the most frequent difficulties I see in my psychology practice. Emily P. Freeman offers a compassionate roadmap to managing these internal tensions in order to live a more meaningful and value-aligned life.” — Dr. Meg Arroll, author of Tiny Traumas

“With refreshing vulnerability and magnetic depth, Emily gives us an evergreen guide for life’s myriad transitions. Having read her offering while navigating huge transitions of my own, the tears I cried while reading this book left me with the assurance that she gets it. More importantly, I finished the final paragraphs knowing that God sees me. This is undoubtedly a book to companion you for years to come.” — Ashlee Eiland, author of HUMAN(KIND) and Say Good

From the Publisher

★ 04/01/2024

Freeman, host of The Next Right Thing podcast, spiritual director, and author of five books, including The Next Right Thing, focuses on the metaphorical rooms where people live in their personal and professional lives: house of worship, home, relationships, community groups, workplace, etc. The book is divided into three parts. The first discusses how to walk out of a room. These are areas where we feel we no longer belong or want to belong. Freeman encourages readers to reflect on these feelings and why. Part two centers on "pausing," the in-between period when readers may want to leave a relationship or physical place but are having doubts about whether it is the right decision. Finally, part three addresses how to walk into a new room after one decides to become or is in the process of becoming a new person. VERDICT This well-written volume encourages users to ask the tough questions in their lives. Best suited for self-help, pastoral, and spiritual counselors.—Jacqueline Parascandola

Library Journal