Oishi and Westgate put it, a person on their deathbed “who has led a happy life might say, ‘I had fun!’ A person who has led a meaningful life might say, ‘I made a difference!’ And a person who has led a psychologically rich life might say, ‘What a journey!’”

If our brain locks on to signals that send us toward threat, avoidance, or disconnection, all it hears is: This hurts, be sad, shut down. It knows that pattern. But if we add other sensory signals (feelings, emotions, muscular actions, vision), we can turn down the salience of the memory and remind the brain to wake up, and be aware of other

emotional regulation systems that guide our perception and actions. Three of the key systems are: Threat and protect Drive and strive Contentment and soothing

The context determines what identity is activated. Compartmentalization is about separating and narrowing to minimize conflict and achieve a more fragile variety of coherence.

The noble eightfold path provides the antidote. These eight items include understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration.

comparison against yourself. Did you run a new personal record? Great, you succeeded, even if you finished eighth! This works well early on when progress comes easy. As we move up the ranks and progress stalls, new personal bests become fewer and farther between. You have to change or else just about every race will leave you disappointed. So you

Intensive pursuit of a singular role often results in a unidimensional identity, with our personal and social selves converging on the same thing. We occupy a narrow world, a kind of identity tunnel. We can’t see beyond the singular item. While our peers were trying on different hats, we missed out on the dabbling and exploring. Before you know it,

success derives its power not from the result itself, but from the transformation we undergo during our journey toward it.

There was the 1962 laughing epidemic in Tanzania where people suffered from laughing fits that lasted from hours all the way up to sixteen days.