How We Break

For example, if you try and solve the problem of feeling tired and stressed, you will also keep in mind the ‘places you don’t want to visit’ such as exhaustion, burnout and breakdown. So now, in addition to feeling tired and stressed, you begin conjuring up new fears for yourself, and this only enhances your anxieties and stresses, leading to even

But our culture drives us precisely in the wrong direction. We go to great lengths to promote individuality. We’re encouraged to adopt an independent view of ourselves. Not only do we view the individual as the fundamental unit of humanity, but we evaluate individuals at every turn and set people against one another with relentless competition. In

Our self-experience is the product of the balance between our rational and our emotional brains. When these two systems are in balance, we “feel like ourselves.” However, when our survival is at stake, these systems can function relatively independently.