Kim's blog

-Whereas homeostasis is agnostic to expectations, allostasis states that if you expect something to happen you will suffer less distress during the ensuing period of disorder.-Your prefrontal cortex is constantly generating predictions for what might unfold. These predictions are sent to the brain stem, which then prepares your mind-body system for whatever is anticipated.-The brain adopts this ..

-Nonetheless, the Delta variant of COVID was met by omnipresent despair. Everyone was expecting one thing- the gradual unwinding of the pandemic- but what we got was something else entirely.-Swaths of psychological research show that our happiness is any given moment is a function of our reality minus our expectations.-This is in stark contrast to so many other places in the Western world, where..

-Todd May argues that if somehow you could become immortal, your life would not have as much meaning.-To live is to lose. And it is the certainty of loss that makes life meaningful.-Like an explorer on a path, the closer and more intimate we get with the changing landscape, the more beautiful, interesting, and deeply fulfilling the journey becomes, not in spite of the fact that we know it will c..

-Limitation in the possibility of an enjoyment raises the value of the enjoyment.-Like the poet in Freud's essay, if we cannot get comfortable (or at lease comfortable enough) with the fact that everything changes, we risk going through life at an arm's length from its most poignant offerings. In trying to protect ourselves from the experience of change, we end up limiting the depth of our lives..

-It was clear to both of them that there was no escaping their respective situations.-The key is that you've got to truly accept your reality: not think about accepting it, not talk about accepting it, not wish you could accept it, but actually accept it.-If, however, we can acknowledge hard truths instead of deluding ourselves, the reward is a significant one: a more meaningful life.

-When you operate in being mode, however, you identify with a deeper part of yourself : your essence and core values, your ability to respond to circumstances, whatever they may be. -For almost a decade, lifting weights had been one of my primary ways of dealing with challenges. Now that was off the table too. I was unsure of who I was and my role in the community. I was lost. -As she sat there ..

-I realized that it wouldn't help to dwell on what went wrong. I told myself that pain is growth. That the trauma would enhance my focus. I assume that no one outside of my family truly expected me to make a full comebacks, an idea I found strangely liberating. -He wasn't sure how far he'd go, and he was under no delusion that his disability wouldn't be an issue. But he accepted his fate and con..

-Pursuits that align with your core values and shrink a big, unwieldy, and overwhelming world to make it feel smaller and more manageable are useful for integrating significant changes into your life and walking confidently into the unknown. -You've got no choice but to focus on what is in front of you, to be present with what is, not with what was or could be.

-Essentially, Kuhn depicts scientific progress as a cycle of order, disorder, and reorder. -Nonetheless, Kuhn observed that there is almost always a segment of people who resist change until the bitter end, and in doing so, leave plenty of suffering in their wake. -If you fear change, then, in many ways, you fear life- and chronic fear becomes toxic both in self and in the culture at large.

-The cord aim of Buddhism has been to address the suffering caused by clinging, by holding on too tightly to one's possessions, plans, and self-concept in a world where everything is always in flux. -Tzu depicts life as a dynamic path full of uncertainty and instability whose source is an energetic flow. -Fast forward to today and we now know that resisting change results in not only psychologic..