Brains & Baubles: Do What Works for You! Five Brilliant Steps to Find Happiness Using Emotional Intelligence

By Davina Dandridge

Brains & Baubles: Do What Works for You chronicles Davina's own venture into introspection and personal fulfillment. Davina shares how she uncovers her thoughts, feelings, plans, obsessions, and dreams and pursues activities that bring more joy to her life.

In 10 years as a Humanities professor, Davina has

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dandridge Media Group LLC
• Release date: Jan 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088071779

Book preview

Cover.png

Testimonials about Davina Dandridge

Davina’s desire to inspire others through her words and personal experiences is amazing. It delights me how transparent she is when speaking and delivering with such eloquence.

- Dr.Tamera G.

Davina transcends categories due to her diverse and colorful ability to transmit her life experiences as though you were present during them. She is the cool approachable sister from your neighborhood that inspires you to never say I can’t. She is also the focused leader of any project that commands discipline and unwavering confidence.

~Lisa H.

Above all her achievements and qualities, the things that I most admire about Davina are that she’s a person of faith, a good wife, and a mother. She’s a good human being. Her helpful ability is not restricted just to work, but it extends to personal matters as well. People approach her with their problems, which she solves with prayer, intelligence, and care.

~Katherine B.

I was totally engaged in Davina’s speech. She truly gave me an opportunity for introspection.  She was down to earth, refreshing, forward-thinking, and insightful. She communicated her personal goals and how they transcended into her business goals. She hit the nail on the head while speaking on the importance of self—awareness.

~Carmen E.

Davina Dandridge is a refreshingly honest and inspiring facilitator. Attending her recent workshop on Emotional Intelligence armed me with the necessary tools to regain focus, courage, and motivation to bring to fruition my God-given dream and vision.

~Catherine J.

I honestly believe she will ‘blow up!’ She has tapped into a power that enhances her self-awareness. Davina displays excellent abilities as a team player and a qualified leader. Davina has an upbeat and buoyant personality that makes things turn around for the better!

~Dr. Timothy C.

BRAINS

&

BAUBLES:

Do What Works for You!

Five Brilliant Steps to Find Happiness Using Emotional Intelligence

DAVINA DANDRIDGE

Logo, company name Description automatically generated

Dandridge Media Group

Brains & Baubles

All rights reserved

Copyright ©2018 by Davina Dandridge

Cover design by: The Multus Group

Book design by: Katherine Peters

ISBN:9781088071779

Acknowledgment

The work is loosely inspired by the work of Daniel Goleman. Bestselling author of the book

Emotional Intelligence

This book is dedicated to my mom and dad, June and David Stokes. The values and love you poured on me throughout life and the lessons you taught me are priceless. I continue to learn from your lessons today.

Thank you for instilling nuggets of intelligence and confidence in me. And for allowing me to dream.

I love you both.

Contents

Introduction

I Do What Works for Me!

BLING Brings the Glow-Up

Walking into the Light

The Spark Ignites

EQ…Shine Through

Perception is Everything

Self-Gut Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

Beams of Light Radiate Outwardly

Conversate is Not a Word…Communication is Life

I’m Not Afraid to Jump Out There

I Got You!

Teamwork Makes the Gleam Work

Motivation, Inspiration, Annotation & Elevation

The BLING Concept

Get Your Shine On!

Introduction

I am on a journey to self-discovery, emotional recovery, and the pursuit of a life of Curated Sophistication.

I know who I am to my family, colleagues, students, and the public. But I’ve lost who I am to myself. The Brains & Baubles outline the beginning of my re-discovery of self. Transitioning away from the Super Woman fallacy, from the corporate dream job and side hustle mentality, to owning my mantra, I do what works for me!

I’m on a quest for inspiration for creative expression, as I work through fear, explore ideas of mental freedom, and shake off my people pleaser cloak. I’m on a mission to test new ideas and concepts of self-satisfaction through wit, openness, and critical thinking. I’ll show you how to prioritize self-love.

My titles are wife, mother, bonus mom, caregiver to my aging mother, sister, friend, teacher, entrepreneur, creative, and woman. If you’re like me, you’re pleased to wear your titles. Each one has a unique reward.

I’ve found in managing each of these titles; that there are traits in my personality that serve these labels well. Over time, I created an idealized way to handle each role. I possess an overwhelming desire to display excellence in each area.

My desire for a particular level of perfection leads to stress, anxiety, procrastination, and a hit to my self-confidence when things aren’t perfect. If you’ve had these same feelings, then don’t put this book down.

I’m not always successful. But I am open to improvement.

If you’re saying, Yes, that’s me!

I get it!

Or I know exactly what you mean., then you’re sure to find value in the Brains & Baubles series.

I’m done with saying the things I’m supposed to say. Gone are the days of trying to make everything look nice and hiding my feelings to appear together.

In Brains & Baubles, baubles represents my unapologetic pursuit of what makes me happy and feel good. When you feel good, you shine!

Who Am I Sharing with?

Brains & Baubles is for women in the process of adjusting to profound life changes. Divorce, career changes, blended families, empty nesting, caring for aging parents, health, sex, dating, self-confidence, self-care, stress, faith, happiness, interpersonal exploration, and fear are manageable when you master your emotions. 

What is the BLING Concept?

My experience with building gratifying relationships and sharing the theory of Emotional Intelligence at universities and in workshops inspired me to simplify the method. Applying these ideas to the creation of successful planning strategies during significant life changes in my own life translates into a pared-down, easy-to-use EI-inspired concept that I created called BLING.

The BLING Concept is constant in my life. I’ve guided others to instances of emotional and life success with BLING. I share how small immediate changes have a significant impact on your behavior, how you communicate, and how you handle emotions.

Applying the BLING Concept in all areas of my life enables me to design my future. I create surroundings that I think are magnificent and explore objects and experiences that I feel are pleasurable, beautiful, and exciting, all while staying balanced and not allowing emotions and others’ expectations to drive my decisions.

I wrote Brains & Baubles to share the benefits of applying Emotional Intelligence to one’s life in a way that translates well to women who are, like me, transitioning in several areas of life.

Brains & Baubles stretches my vulnerability and openness as I share the ways I begin to explore my thoughts, feelings, plans, obsessions, dreams, and go after activities that bring satisfaction to my life.

My goal is to live, not just exist.

Transitions and changes in Life are inevitable.

The BLING Concept guides you through changes and enables you to set plans to mitigate issues while pursuing your happiness goals. BLING is a robust process for balancing emotions. Recognizing how your feelings and the feelings of others are impactful to your relationships, goals, self-image, and ability to think bigger and long-ranging about happiness which arouses a refreshed way of viewing the world.

You too will discover, What works for you!

I help women find the courage to be happy, unapologetically.

Accompany me as I implement the BLING concept and share how I surround myself with the objects and experiences I love while I plan and build my custom-designed future. 

I Do What Works for Me!

In today’s technology-driven society, we see success through the lens of social media and reality TV. The pressure to live the fabulous lifestyles displayed by celebrities is overwhelming. The phrases Hustle Hard and On My Grind are synonymous with success on my Instagram feed. Yet, I wince a little when I see people promoting these mantras as the guiding light for success in any arena. Yes, these phrases are positive and motivating affirmations. However, I don’t want to hustle harder or grind for the best years of my life or even for the