Amrutha Manoj

“The doctor’s theory was that, in modern life, our ancient fight-or-flight mechanism was being triggered too frequently—in traffic jams, meetings with our bosses, etc.—and that this was contributing to the epidemic of heart disease. Even if the confrontations were themselves minor, our bodies didn’t know that; they reacted as if they were in kill-or-be-killed scenarios, releasing toxic stress chemicals into the bloodstream.”
― Dan Harris, 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works - A True Story

“Alexander II was known as the “Tsar-Liberator,” yet his murder became the preeminent objective of Russian revolutionaries. The assassins went to extraordinary lengths. Once, near Moscow, they purchased a building near the railway track and tunneled a gallery from the building under the track, where they planted a huge mine. The Tsar was saved when his train left Moscow in a different direction.”
― Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra: The Last Tsar and his Family

“My life until that point had been a series of struggles. As a youth in Kerala, I was looked down upon by my older siblings, and my contributions to the family business were never acknowledged. Then, I landed in the Gulf, with no friends, no business contacts, no knowledge of the business ecosystem or the local language, and very little money. But I managed, through sheer determination and self-belief, to establish the Alukkas name in the UAE. After that came the family partition, which left me with no assets in my home country. In a matter of a few years, I leveraged my new-found freedom from family oversight to establish myself in India. I transitioned to a new identity while retaining the essence of the old.”
― Joy Alukkas, Spreading Joy: How Joyalukkas Became the World's Favourite Jeweller

“How many times have we heard from people who got rich or famous and it wasn’t enough? Rock stars with drug problems. Lottery winners who kill themselves. There’s actually a term for this—“hedonic adaptation.” When good things happen, we bake them very quickly into our baseline expectations, and yet the primordial void goes unfilled.”
― Dan Harris, 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works - A True Story