Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- What This Book Is About -- Part 1 -- The Worry Machine -- Chapter 1 -- Protection at a Price -- Luke's Struggle -- My Mind, My Bodyguard -- The Argument Trap -- The Paradox of Thought Suppression -- Chapter 2 -- A Day in the Life of a Mind -- What Is the Mind? -- Why the Mind Worries -- How the Mind Speaks -- Anxiety and Depression: Ancient Tools for Modern Times -- The Mind Is Always Rational, from a Certain Point of View -- Chapter 3 -- Letting the Mind Do Its Job -- From the Mind's Point of View, Survival Matters Most -- Thoughts Are Not Facts -- Observing Your Thoughts -- Observing Your Emotions -- Part 2 -- Happiness Is Not Your Mind's Job -- Chapter 4 -- How the Mind Uses History -- How Penelope Lost Track of Her Values -- The Past Is Not the Problem -- The Mind's False Dilemmas -- Chapter 5 -- The Mind's Skewed View and Biased Memories -- What the Mind Fears and How It Responds -- The Survival Value of Biased Recall -- How the Mind Makes Rules to Keep Us Safe -- Chapter 6 -- Values and Action -- Training the Mind to Tolerate the Pursuit of Values -- The Higher Mind -- Finding Your Values -- Control Your Life, Not Your Mind -- The Trap of Waiting for Thoughts and Feelings to Change -- Take Your Mind with You on the Road to Valued Living -- Part 3 -- Four Ways Our Minds Coerce Us-and What We Can Do About Them -- Chapter 7 -- That Was Then and This Is Then -- What Meg Doesn't Know About Andy -- Why Our Minds Rely on History -- Chapter 8 -- Trump Cards and Double Standards -- Trump Cards -- Responding to Trump Cards -- Double Standards -- Staying Observant and Maintaining Distance -- Chapter 9 -- Pessimistic Thinking -- It Isn't Pessimism-­It's Error Management -- Pessimism: The Ancient Cure for Modern Times -- Living with a Pessimistic Mind -- Chapter 10 -- Quick Fixes -- How the Mind Competes with Itself.

Breaking the Quick-­Fix Habit -- Managing the Drive for Quick Fixes -- Part 4 -- Mood, Lifestyle, and Psychological Flexibility -- Chapter 11 -- Welcome to Your State of Mind -- Mallory's Mood -- Don't Trust Every Mood You Meet -- My Mind Might Be Wrong -- Opposite Action: Moving Toward Values -- To Medicate or Not to Medicate? -- Chapter 12 -- Mind the Basics -- How Healthy Habits Insulate Us from the Mind -- One Final Exercise: Increasing Psychological Flexibility for a Lifetime -- References.