Atlas of the Heart

Worrying and anxiety go together, but worry is not an emotion; it’s the thinking part of anxiety.

When we’re faced with information that challenges what we believe, our first instinct is to make the discomfort, irritation, and vulnerability go away by resolving the dissonance. We might do this by rejecting the new information, decreasing its importance, or avoiding it altogether. “The greater the magnitude of the dissonance, the greater is the pressure to reduce dissonance.” In these challenging moments of dissonance, we need to stay curious and resist choosing comfort over courage. It’s brave to invite new information to the table, to sit with it and hear it out.

We have to belong to ourselves as much as we need to belong to others. Any belonging that asks us to betray ourselves is not true belonging.

Just as healing physical pain requires describing it, talking about it, and sometimes getting professional help, we need to do the same thing with emotional pain.

People will do almost anything to not feel pain, including causing pain and abusing power

Avoidance will make you feel less vulnerable in the short run, but it will never make you less afraid.

Science is not the truth. Science is finding the truth. When science changes its opinion, it didn’t lie to you. It learned more.

The near enemy of love is attachment...True love allows, honors, and appreciates; attachment grasps, demands, needs, and aims to possess.

Vulnerability is not weakness; it's our greatest measure of courage.

I’ve learned that power is not bad, but the abuse of power or using power over others is the opposite of courage; it’s a desperate attempt to maintain a very fragile ego.