“Always believe in yourself and always stretch yourself beyond your limits. Your life is worth a lot more than you think because you are capable of accomplishing more than you know. You have more potential than you think, but you will never know your full potential unless you keep challenging yourself and pushing beyond your own self imposed limits.”
Source: The Light in the Heart
“They’re common, but they’re also beautiful. And the beauty isn’t because of the events, but because they’re beautiful in your eyes,” said Liu-laoshi. “Those who’ll blame everything under the heavens but themselves will think even a blue sky with white clouds is mocking them. For Shen-laoshi, stormy weather is all for helping you temper your will. I’ve always lived with the agony I experienced at my death. Whatever I saw was full of blood. But with Shen-laoshi’s lesson plans for leading people onto the true path and his own views on the world recorded in the notebook, written on my heart, engraved on my very soul, what grudges and resentments can I still have? Over a hundred years have passed. If I still stay tangled up in these little matters of the past, then I truly am blind.”
Source: 他们都说我遇到了鬼 [They All Say I Encountered a Ghost]
“When dopamine fires too fast, joy can’t find its footing.”
Source: Dopamine: The Silent Architect of Desire, Discipline, and Meaning
“The slow pursuit doesn’t dull dopamine it teaches it grace.”
Source: Dopamine: The Silent Architect of Desire, Discipline, and Meaning
“Awareness is the breath between impulse and intention the moment dopamine becomes dialogue.”
Source: Dopamine: The Silent Architect of Desire, Discipline, and Meaning
“Certainty feels like control, but it’s just dopamine whispering, ‘Stay where it’s safe.”
Source: Dopamine: The Silent Architect of Desire, Discipline, and Meaning
“Dopamine rewards the map, not the journey until you start walking.”
Source: Dopamine: The Silent Architect of Desire, Discipline, and Meaning
“Perfectionism feels like mastery, but it’s really dopamine afraid to say goodbye.”
Source: Dopamine: The Silent Architect of Desire, Discipline, and Meaning
“Mindfulness practices are especially important in the early days of abstinence. Many of us use high-dopamine substances and behaviors to distract ourselves from our own thoughts. When we first stop using dopamine to escape, those painful thoughts, emotions, and sensations come crashing down on us.
The trick is to stop running away from painful emotions, and instead allow ourselves to tolerate them. When we're able to do this, our experience takes on a new and unexpectedly rich texture. The pain is still there, but somehow transformed, seeming to encompass a vast landscape of communal suffering, rather than being wholly our own.”
“Serotonin—improves willpower, motivation, and mood. Norepinephrine—enhances thinking, focus, and dealing with stress. Dopamine—increases enjoyment and is necessary for changing bad habits. Oxytocin—promotes feelings of trust, love, and connection, and reduces anxiety. GABA—increases feelings of relaxation and reduces anxiety. Melatonin—enhances the quality of sleep. Endorphins—provide pain relief and feelings of elation. Endocannabinoids—improve your appetite and increase feelings of peacefulness and well-being.”
Source: The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time