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Are you ever a mystery to yourself? Maybe you want to feel in control of your feelings — rather than the other way around — or maybe you just want to know yourself more deeply. Learn how to understand and manage your emotional life with this playlist from Life Kit+. Subscribe to Life Kit Plus now to get exclusive access to this and other Life Kit playlists we'll be adding over time, and get sponsor-free listening for new Life Kit episodes, too. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Cringing at the time you gave a speech with spinach in your teeth, or accidentally liked an ex's picture on social media? Still reliving that incident in the fourth grade when you called your teacher "mommy"? Awkward moments have a tendency to haunt us – even ones from decades ago. This episode, Life Kit reporter Andee Tagle breaks down why we get so embarrassed about the things we do and how we can experience those feelings a little less.

What is happiness? How do you define it? Maybe it's feeling good, having a sunny disposition or being fulfilled, even if you don't feel pleasant all the time. Gretchen Rubin, host of the Happier podcast and author of The Happiness Project, says happiness is less about attaining joy than it is about growing in the right direction. In this episode, she explains how to make small changes that can move you toward happiness, and why knowing yourself helps contribute to this emotion.

You have more power over your emotions than you think, says psychologist and neuroscientist Ethan Kross. In his new book, Shift: Managing Your Emotions — So They Don't Manage You, he says there are specific tools you can use to "skillfully push" your feelings around in a way that's useful, whether that's confronting them in the moment or avoiding them until you're ready to process them.

Sometimes you're just feeling blah: the weather's bad, you can't get out of bed and you're struggling to shake off that listlessness. In these moments, the solution is often simpler than we think. This episode, NPR's science desk and Life Kit staff present research-backed mood boosters to instantly shake yourself out of a slump and turn your day around.

You broke someone's heart. You missed your kid's recital. You weren't there for your mom when she needed you. Guilt! It can be painful – but also a powerful tool for connection. In this episode, learn how to have a healthy relationship with guilt with help from a psychologist and an ethics researcher.

Dr. Aditi Nerurkar offers five accessible ways to minimize stress in your daily life — no lavish vacations or big life changes necessary.

Feeling overwhelmed, panicked or anxious? Clinical psychologist Jenny Taitz offers simple techniques to improve your mood and calm your body and mind in minutes.

Anxiety can feel awful and overwhelming. But it can also be a helpful warning signal — telling us when we're in danger or out of alignment with our true feelings. We share tips on how to turn down the dial on your anxiety symptoms, so you can listen to what they're trying to tell you.

Rage, fear, possessiveness, sadness or all of the above — we all experience romantic jealousy differently, but the common denominator is the feeling of that inner alarm bell going off telling you you're going to lose your special someone.When mishandled, feelings of jealousy can lead to anything from internal strife to actual violence. But cultivated correctly, it can also be a "beautiful opportunity" to "deepen our awareness of what we want, who we care about and who we are". In this episode you'll hear how you can unlock jealousy's power.

Anger can be a powerful teacher — if we know how to use it. In this episode, Lama Rod Owens, a teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, explains how he learned to love his anger, and gives listeners a six-step meditation to recognize it and let it go.