Shift Audiobook By Ethan Kross cover art

Shift

Managing Your Emotions—So They Don't Manage You

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Shift

By: Ethan Kross
Narrated by: Ethan Kross
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About this listen

“A revolutionary guide to mastering your emotional life.”—Charles Duhigg

“Brilliant, engaging, and deeply insightful.”—Lisa Damour

“Illuminating.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

One of Oprah Daily’s Best Self-Help Books for Personal Growth in 2025, Next Big Idea Club’s Highly Anticipated Books, and Adam Grant’s 10 New Books to Feed Your Mind

A myth-busting science-based guide that addresses the timeless question of how to manage your emotional life using tools you already possess—from the bestselling author of Chatter.

Whether it’s anxiety about going to the doctor, boiling rage when we’re stuck in traffic, or devastation after a painful break-up, our lives are filled with situations that send us spiraling. But as difficult as our emotions can be, they are also a superpower. Far from being “good” or “bad,” emotions are information. 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 always 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 spotlights a wide array of tools that we already have access to—in our bodies and minds, our relationships with other people, and the cultures and physical spaces we inhabit—and shows us how to harness them to be healthier and more successful.

Filled with actionable advice, cutting-edge research, and riveting 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.

©2025 Ethan Kross (P)2025 Random House Audio
Editors Select Mental Health Personal Success Psychology

Critic reviews

“[Shift] puts the problem of overreaction in a new light.”The New Yorker

“Illuminating . . . this will be a boon to readers looking to take better charge of their inner lives.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“This book does much more than make sense of emotions—it breaks new ground on how to manage them. Ethan Kross has done something remarkable: he’s written a page-turner that’s grounded in science and filled with practical insights. If you think you can’t control what you feel, he’s about to make you think twice.”—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the podcast Re:Thinking

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The toolkit I never knew that I needed

tl;dr – Get this book if you want practical tools and compelling stories that cover how to direct your emotions for good.

I'm about 75% through the book and felt compelled to write this review. It dives deep into issues that plague society. You could read a book on happiness, stress management, or countless other subjects, but this one has quickly become a top 5 recommendation for me. As someone who experiences emotions quite intensely 😉, I know what it’s like to deal with big, scary, sad, lasting, and overwhelming feelings.

What I love most about this book—after reading over 50 self-help books—is that it actually provides tools to handle emotional challenges. The blend of storytelling, science, and personal insights makes it engaging. I won’t claim that every idea is flawless, but the strategies for managing emotions are truly game-changing.

I’m especially excited to apply techniques like distancing language (which I was familiar with for performance anxiety but never considered for all emotions), time shifting, music, attention shifting, and more in my daily life to combat anxiety, worry, and stress.

I also look forward to embracing my emotions more fully, allowing me to connect more deeply and empathetically by tapping into past experiences.

There are so many golden nuggets in this book that I had never encountered before, such as:

- You can't control when emotions start, but you can control their direction and intensity.
- Emotions act like glue, binding past experiences to present ones (or something like that! 😊).
- Reframing things you do have control over can actually be harmful in certain contexts.

I hope this book helps you on your journey, just as I hope it will for me and my family.

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