Melanie Kahl

“The mark of a person who is in control of consciousness is the ability to focus attention at will, to be oblivious to distractions, to concentrate for as long as it takes to achieve a goal, and not longer. And the person who can do this usually enjoys the normal course of everyday life.”
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

“Fundamental Attribution Error.” The error lies in our inclination to attribute people’s behavior to the way they are rather than to the situation they are in.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“And that’s the first surprise about change: What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

“Our spiritual traditions have carried virtues across time. They are tools for the art of living. They are pieces of intelligence about human behavior that neuroscience is now exploring with new words and images: what we practice, we become. What’s true of playing the piano or throwing a ball also holds for our capacity to move through the world mindlessly and destructively or generously and gracefully. I’ve come to think of virtues and rituals as spiritual technologies for being our best selves in flesh and blood, time and space. There are superstar virtues that come most readily to mind and can be the work of a day or a lifetime—love, compassion, forgiveness. And there are gentle shifts of mind and habit that make those possible, working patiently through the raw materials of our lives.”
― Krista Tippett, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living