Whether it’s anxiety about the dentist, boiling rage when we’re stuck in traffic or devastation after a painful break-up, our lives are filled with situations that send us spiralling. But as difficult as our emotions can be, they are also a superpower. When they’re activated in the right ways and at the right time, they function like an immune system, alerting us to our surroundings, telling us how to react to a situation and helping us make the right choices.

But how do we make our emotions work for us rather than against us? Acclaimed psychologist Dr Ethan Kross has devoted his scientific career to answering this question. In Shift, he dispels common myths – for instance, that avoidance is toxic or that we should always strive to live in the moment – and provides a new framework for shifting our emotions so they don’t take over our lives.

Shift weaves groundbreaking research with riveting stories of people struggling and succeeding to manage their emotions – from a mother whose fear prompted her to make a spur-of-the-moment decision that would save her daughter’s life mid-flight to a nuclear code-carrying Navy SEAL who learned how to embrace both joy and pain during a hellish training activity. Dr Kross shows us that we already have access to a wide array of tools and demonstrates how to harness them to be healthier and more successful.

Filled with actionable advice, cutting-edge research and inspiring stories, Shift puts the power back into our hands, so we can control our emotions without them controlling us – and help others do the same.

Turn your inner voice from critic to coach As humans, we all have a special ability that is unique to our species: an inner voice. It helps us focus, achieve our goals and reflect on life's most joyful moments. But it can also be our biggest enemy, chewing over painful emotions and replaying embarrassments, hijacking our thoughts to run amok with 'chatter'. How does this source of wisdom turn into our biggest critic? And how can we take back control? These are the questions one of the world's leading experts on the conscious mind set out to answer twenty years ago, when he started on an audacious mission - to study the conversations we have with ourselves. In this hugely anticipated book, that expert, the award-winning neuroscientist and psychologist Ethan Kross, reveals the sheer power of the inner voice, and shows us that we all possess a set of tools for harnessing it. Hidden in plain sight, they are in the words we use and the stories we tell ourselves, in the conversations we have with our loved ones and in the habits we undertake when tackling our goals. They are even sometimes in our bizarre rituals and lucky charms. Fascinating, entertaining and full of original insights and tips, Chatter will change the conversations you have with yourself forever, and help you lead a happier, more productive life.