Leafmarks

“The desire to have control over oneself is a strong human drive. Believing that we have the ability to control our fate influences whether we try to achieve goals, how much effort we exert to do so, and how long we persist when we encounter challenges. Given all this, it is not surprising that increasing people’s sense of control has been linked to benefits that span the gamut from improved physical health and emotional well-being, to heightened performance at school and work, to more satisfying interpersonal relationships. Conversely, feeling out of control often causes our chatter to spike and propels us to try to regain it. Which is where turning to our physical environments becomes relevant.”
― Ethan Kross, Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It

“You don’t just owe it to yourself to be an optimist; you owe it to everyone around you.”
― Darrin Donnelly, Relentless Optimism: How a Commitment to Positive Thinking Changes Everything

“Engage in mental time travel. Another way to gain distance and broaden your perspective is to think about how you’ll feel a month, a year, or even longer from now. Remind yourself that you’ll look back on whatever is upsetting you in the future and it’ll seem much less upsetting.”
― Ethan Kross, Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It

“Deep inside the workings of the human brain, there is no actual ‘truth.’ The part of the brain that stores all of the messages you have received, accepts what it is told most often. It then plays back to you the strongest messages it has received. And it plays those messages back to you as ‘truth’ or ‘fact,’ whether the messages are actually true or not.”
― Shad Helmstetter, Negative Self-Talk and How to Change It