The Upside of Stress

Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It

By: Kelly McGonigal PhD

Narrated by: Kelly McGonigal PhD

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 stress can 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.

A must read for just about anyone

Almost everyone had come across stress in some shape or form. As a result there is something in this book for just about anyone.

Excellent book with life changing insights

The insights in this book were just what I need for the phase of life I’m facing now. I’ve chosen this book because I’ve read “the will power instinct” which was also life changing.

I found some chapters a bit repetitive. The same idea that a positive view on stress changes it’s effects is repeated time and time again, so that could have been shorter.

I really appreciate that this audiobook was read by the author unlike “the will Power instinct” that (although had a good narrator) was narrated by a man.

This book is a gift

I've listened to this book 4 times now. Each time I gain more from it, each time I've gained new relevant insights into current life challenges.

I'm a chiropractor in active practice and like the author I HAD an over all negative view of the stress response in the context of our modern society. My view has shifted significantly due to what I've learned from this work. Understanding so much more about how nuanced and useful our stress response is, even in our modern society, has meaningfully shifted the entire dialogue I have with my practice.

Personally my approach to the pain and challenge of raising teenagers, as well as my overall perspective to that challenge has changed. All the tools laid out in this book have, with certainty, helped me reconnect to the kind of person and parent I what to be.

The knowledge I've gained from this book and deployed into my life,, has made my life better. Get this book.

Kelly McGonigal is awesome!!

This book is literally life changing. You'll never view stress the same way again. Thank you, Kelly!

Authentic and Relevantl

Thank you for your authentic inquiry into this topic. The way you used focused questions, credible evidence, and story to teach these concepts made the book easy to access and transfer to my life.