It used to be thought that you stopped making new neural connections in your youth and from then on your brain was fixed and it was downhill all the way. But in fact as we know from our own experience we can keep on learning and learning means changing our brain on a physical level.

After a stroke we can re-learn how to talk, because by practicing we can establish different pathways in the brain, circumnavigating the damaged part.

Two brains are better than one. You've twice the brain capacity and you have two sets of experiences and genes to bring to any challenge.

A relapse doesn't mean you'll never walk down the path you prefer. But I think relapses are almost an inevitable part of any course of self-development.

If you start from a position of I'm a no-hoper, in a paradoxical kind of way you are not risking being vulnerable.

In order to stretch ourselves we do need to experience the vulnerability of not knowing the outcome.

Beginning a new habit, or ending an old one can feel like letting go of a rope that swings a mile above the ground. So we feel reluctant to let go, after all, we've survived so far doing what we've done, why risk it.