Dr Ryan Martin is a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, but he may be better known to 10s of 1000s as @angerprofessor on TikTok and Instagram. There, and in his bestselling books such How to Deal with Angry People, he offers tips and tricks for handling anger and other unwieldy emotions.

His newest book, Emotion Hacks: 50 Ways to Feel Better Fast, is in the same field, presenting psychological research to show you might lead a more emotionally calm life, without the peaks and troughs that may sometimes feel uncontrollable.

For example, he explains why some people seem to see many comments from a negative perspective. Research has shown that when two groups are tested for rumination, it is the highly emotional cohort who have the least favourable outcome when they think about a set of critical and praising comments that have been made about them. This is connected to the default mode network (DMN), a set of structure associated with rest (which is when rumination happens). Critical comments were much more likely to activate the DMN in the more emotional group.

If that includes you, says Dr Martin, he suggests disrupting the DMN with a range of steps, from meditation to structured problem solving “to shift your focus away from the negative emotion loop you’ve found yourself in.”

Short and snappy with its title bent into a smiley face on an acid yellow cover, it’s a worthwhile read for anyone who finds themselves (or anyone close to them) a prisoner of their emotions.

Emotion Hacks: 50 Ways to Feel Better Fast