From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
The adjustment to life post-hostage varies significantly from person to person. Some adapt swiftly, while others may take years, and a few, unfortunately, never fully recover from the trauma—though they are the minority.
Songs are like a cleanse for the nervous system. I put on She's Always a Woman by Billy Joel and I just suddenly felt psychologically lifted. There's something in the essence of this song… it's not just beats and energy. It felt this song was filled with beauty, mystery, and love.
There's a misconception that outstanding work and profound well-being are mutually exclusive. But in reality, both are crucial for lasting success—emphasis on 'lasting'.
Human beings seem like their default recreation is sedation. For some reason, getting drunk at a bar is the default in what people do for fun, which I find bizarre.
Our emotions are connected to our beliefs and opinions. Epictetus said what causes men suffering is not events, but their opinion about events. That piece of wisdom is very useful because it gives you some ability to have control over your emotions.
Think of it this way: you wouldn't hand someone car keys without briefing them about potential car troubles, right? Yet, with women, it feels like we're just careening through our reproductive experiences, unguided. We have women experiencing miscarriages in A&E, waiting alongside patients with diverse emergencies. In such critical moments, timely intervention with progesterone could potentially save thousands of babies annually.
I think social media is a great example of this. It feels a little bit like social connection, but I often joke that it's the 'NutraSweet' version—it seems good but doesn't deliver the psychological benefit we expect.
Anxiety isn't one thing, it's two. It's the anxieties of the mind, but it's also this alarm state, this state of constant protective hyper vigilant alarm, physiological activity in the body. And each of them energises the other.
Roughly 100 countries in the world have already eliminated malaria (most of them since the Second World War). Of the 100 countries in the world that still have endemic malaria, 39 are in the process of eliminating while the remaining 61 are making steady progress.
By encouraging them to pay attention as they overeat, we can reduce the reward value of that habit to zero in just 10-15 sessions of eating. These are people who could have been overeating for decades, but their behaviour can change quickly.
There will be no cure for cancer until real doctors with real patients in real hospitals can attempt an innovation.
The real culprit behind the sickness often goes unnoticed: it's the disruption to our circadian rhythm caused by traveling across time zones. Our bodies are designed to operate on a natural rhythm.