We all want the power and motivation to create change in our lives. But how to get that in a stumbling dance of one step forward and two steps back? Negative emotions run rampant in many people's lives today; a reality that feels like a shrink wrap of suffering. Popular fallback "solutions" of performance-based goals and tools focus on extrinsic rewards like fame, wealth, or winning. But overuse of those rewards doesn't work for the long term and in fact weakens our confidence and motivation over time, leaving us vulnerable to failure and shame.

It doesn't have to be that way. Through three decades of researching and tracking such universal struggles to change our behavior, Dr. Kyra Bobinet unveils the way out, using novel neuroscience research on a compelling new brain area, the habenula. In this book, she reveals the habenula's powerful role in killing our motivation and causing anxiety and depression and offers a foolproof way to escape its clutches.