Karina Papalezova

Memories are not static — whenever we recall a memory, it becomes temporarily modifiable, like opening a file on a computer to edit it. During this brief window of malleability, we have the opportunity to revise the emotional meanings and predictions we've attached to past experiences.

Our negative relationship with some emotions (e.g., sadness or anger) comes not from the emotion itself, but our resistance to feeling it.

A powerful way to check in with our emotions is by asking ourselves, “How much am I bracing vs how much am I embracing?” When we brace, we are resisting our experience. This resistance creates internal conflict ... See more

Given that emotions play such an essential part in our experience, even if some emotions might feel better than others, it is critical that we listen to all of them. At the most basic level, resisting emotions is resisting our own information processing: we just can’t be as effective or as smart as we could be without processing (read: embracing) o... See more

To forgive is simply to give up hope of changing the past.

we might oversimplify by saying all approaches to therapy boil down to two things: get the brain into a more malleable state, and then update a maladaptive mental habit to be more useful in the future.

If all emotions can be embraced, there is much less to fear in life.

discovering the beauty in our so-called “negative” emotions

learning to spot faster-than-thought mental habits, and relate to all of experience with wholehearted acceptance and appreciation