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13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings
Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind. Cultivate that capacity for “negative capability.” We live in a culture where one of the greatest social disgraces is not having an opinion, so we often form our “opinions” based on superficial impressions or the borrowed ideas of others, without investing the time and thought that... See more
Maria Popova • 13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings
- When people tell you who they are, Maya Angelou famously advised, believe them. Just as important, however, when people try to tell you who you are, don’t believe them. You are the only custodian of your own integrity, and the assumptions made by those that misunderstand who you are and what you stand for reveal a great deal about them and
Maria Popova • 13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings
The richest relationships are lifeboats, but they are also submarines that descend to the darkest and most disquieting places, to the unfathomed trenches of the soul where our deepest shames and foibles and vulnerabilities live, where we are less than we would like to be. Forgiveness is the alchemy by which the shame transforms into the honor and... See more
Maria Popova • 13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings
Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind.
Maria Popova • 13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings
Seek out what magnifies your spirit. Patti Smith, in discussing William Blake and her creative influences, talks about writers and artists who magnified her spirit — it’s a beautiful phrase and a beautiful notion.
Maria Popova • 13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings
Concept of art that magnifies your spirit. (Introspect)
Maria Popova • 13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings
Question your maps and models of the universe, both inner and outer, and continually test them against the raw input of reality.
Maria Popova • 13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings
To understand and be understood, those are among life’s greatest gifts, and every interaction is an opportunity to exchange them.
Maria Popova • 13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings
Do nothing for prestige or status or money or approval alone. As Paul Graham observed, “prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. It causes you to work not on what you like, but what you’d like to like.” Those extrinsic motivators are fine and can feel life-affirming in the moment, but they ultimately... See more