The Upside of Stress ─ Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It

"The author of The Willpower Instinct delivers a controversial and groundbreaking new book that overturns long-held beliefs about stress. More than forty-four percent of Americans admit to losing sleep over stress. And while most of us do everything we can to reduce it, Stanford psychologist and bestselling author Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., delivers a startling message: Stress isn't bad. In The Upside of Stress, McGonigal highlights new research indicating that stress can, in fact, make us stronger, smarter, and happier--if we learn how to embrace it. The Upside of Stress is the first book to bring together cutting-edge discoveries on the correlation between resilience--the human capacity for stress-related growth--and mind-set, the power of beliefs to shape reality. As she did in The Willpower Instinct, McGonigal combines science, stories, and exercises into an engaging and practical book that is both entertaining and life-changing, showing you: how to cultivate a mind-set to embrace stress how stresscan provide focus and energy how stress can help people connect and strengthen close relationships why your brain is built to learn from stress, and how to increase its ability to learn from challenging experiences McGonigal's TED talk on the subject has already received more than 7 million views. Her message resonates with people who know they can't eliminate the stress in their lives and want to learn to take advantage of it. The Upside of Stress is not a guide to getting rid of stress, but a guide to getting better at stress, by understanding it, embracing it, and using it"--

Kelly McGonigal, PhD, is a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University, and the author of the international bestseller The Willpower Instinct (Avery, 2011). As a leader in the field of "science help," McGonigal is passionate about translating cutting-edge research from psychology, neuroscience, and medicine into practical strategies for health, happiness, and personal success.

McGonigal has taught for a wide range of programs at Stanford University, including the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Business, and Stanford Continuing Studies, where her popular public courses include "The Science of Willpower" and "How to Think Like a Psychologist." She has received Stanford's highest teaching honor, the Walter J. Gores award, for her undergraduate psychology teaching. Through her work with the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, she studies methods for training mindfulness, empathy, and compassion. Her research has appeared in such journals as Motivation and Emotion, the Journal of Happiness Studies, and theJournal of Personality and Social Psychology.