Quick Update and Two Quotes for the Week

Dear blog followers, 

One of my greatest pleasures during the adventure of becoming a blogger are all the interesting conversations and discussions which arise as a result of the blog, and the great messages, quotes and tips that I get from you.  So I thought I send you another short 'extra edition' to share some of these with all of you: 

• We have been discussing the topic of personal heroes and courage recently, and another great way of being inspired by other people is by simply listening to them. There are many great radio programs and podcasts, and one blog follower has made me aware of a particularly interesting one: http://www.oneyoufeed.net. The One You Feed features is about people who have gone through difficult times in life and also about sharing new scientific insights, tips and tricks on how to increase resilience and lead a full life. 
• If you are more specifically interested in the topic of courage, you may want to have a look at the following books: 
• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Liver, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
• The Courage Quotient: How Science Can Make You Braver by Robert Biswas-Diener
• Another thing which is fascinating is that you can find inspiring messages pretty much everywhere. I have been discussing 'Thought for the Day' on radio BBC 4 with another blog follower; as it turned out we both like this program but I had missed a good episode on gratitude, where Professor Tina Beattie shared the quote by Hyman Schachtel that: 'Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.' 
• And I have been sent another great quote by a lovely colleague: 

'Some of your hurts you have cured, 

And the sharpest you've even survived, 

But what torments of grief you've endured, 

From evils which never arrived.'

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson's quote captures that pain and suffering are an inevitable part of life, but that we sometimes increase the pain and suffering ourselves by our worries and negative anticipations (as a result of the inherent negativity bias of our brains). As Emerson says, many evils never arrive but later this week we are going to discuss a topic which will sooner or later affect all of us: Illness and mortality. As a good life lived also includes dealing with with the inevitable end, I thought that it was an important topic to include. 

Finally, as the blog community continues growing, I just wanted to remind everybody that previous topics can be searched by keywords (labels) on the right hand side of the website, but that this option is only available on the web version (not mobile version) of the blog.

I hope that you all have a good week until Friday,
Petra