Thibaut Meurisse opens by presenting emotions as genuinely understandable and manageable through deliberate practice, rather than treating emotional experience as purely unpredictable or entirely beyond conscious influence.

Why this manageable-emotions framing matters:

• Many people experience emotions as simply happening to them without genuine capacity for understanding or influence, when Meurisse's approach provides frameworks for deliberate emotional understanding and management
• This framing provides motivation and direction for the book's subsequent detailed practical emotional management guidance
• This opening establishes the book's foundational premise, motivating its subsequent detailed technique guidance

This opening establishes the book's foundational premise regarding emotions as genuinely understandable and manageable through deliberate practice, rather than purely unpredictable experience.