The Radio in Your Head
The common story of our time is quickly told: you are your brain. Your thoughts are synapses, your love is dopamine, your grief a lack of neurotransmitters. A fascinating thought, and in much it holds. It has one side effect: in the end you feel like a machine that just…
The performance record no one asked for
In many people a quiet sentence runs along in the background, often since childhood: “I’m all right if I achieve enough.” Work enough, function enough, endure enough, please enough. The sentence sounds sensible and drives you on. It has a design fault: the “enough” moves further away the closer you…
Stop comparing yourself
You scroll, and suddenly your own life seems dull: others travel, found companies, shine. Comparison is human, but it almost always sets your inner life beside others’ shop window. That cannot end fairly.Why comparison distortsOf yourself you know everything, doubts, bad days, effort. Of others you see the high point,…
Saying no without a guilty conscience
Many say yes out of fear, of seeming unpopular, of looking selfish, of disappointing someone. The price is high: an overfull calendar, quiet anger, exhaustion. A clear no is often the most honest thing, and the most caring toward yourself.A no is a yes to something elseEvery yes costs time…