Emotions permeate our entire lives. They guide us, inspire us, and often torment us. They engage our minds and bodies in an intricate web of perceptions that connects us to our surroundings, to others, and to ourselves. They are a silent and invisible force, like the wind that shakes the treetops and can unsettle even the most firmly rooted trunks. Daniela Perani, one of Italy’s most internationally renowned neuroscientists, takes us on a fascinating journey inside the brain and the origins of emotions. She reveals their complexity and, thanks to the most advanced neuroimaging techniques and experiments on music, language, empathy, and theory of mind, demonstrates how they function—and malfunction—at different stages of life. From the innate emotions of early childhood to the intense storm of adolescence, from the emotional maturity of adulthood to the challenges of aging, each season of life has its own unique emotional landscape, which this book teaches us to explore with greater awareness: only by fully understanding how our emotional brain works can we better understand our inner world and learn to regulate it to build a richer and more balanced emotional life.