The child in us is attracted to love like moths are attracted to light. — Your inner child is your inner guidance system that tells you what you need to be happy. Your inner child is that part of you that always knows what you would have been if you had been loved perfectly. It’s an inner sensor of love or its absence. Your inner…

They retched and kvetched, wailed and flailed, gasped and grasped for explanations. — The literary establishment in England was stunned when a major bookstore chain polled English-speaking readers on which book of the twentieth century they considered the greatest. The Lord of the Rings won by a large margin. Three times the poll was broadened: to a worldwide readership, into cyberspace via Amazon…

Was the Grand Inquisitor right in saying that humans are too weak to choose freedom over bread? — The Grand Inquisitor is a chapter in Dostoyevsky’s world-famous novel The Brothers Karamazov. The Grand Inquisitor, a 90-year-old cardinal, arrests Jesus and explains to him why his whole idea of setting people free was a grave mistake. His claim is simple yet profound — human beings are weak. By offering…

Brene Brown says there are three things any destructive emotion feeds on: secrecy, silence, and judgment. — Brene Brown, the world-famous shame and vulnerability guru, shared in Oprah Winfrey’s show a simple method for healing shame, which applies to all negative emotions in general: “To grow exponentially, shame absolutely needs three things: secrecy, silence, and judgment. …

A surprising discovery by Bill Wilson, the founder of AA. — How to break free from addiction for good? Whether it’s alcohol or social media, if you have battled with addiction for any number of years, you know that it’s not enough to just stop. Stopping is relatively easy. The hard part is not to start again. Bill Wilson, a co-founder…

Some people feel bored when life goes well. — A lot of stress is self-inflicted. That is, we can avoid it if we choose to. But we choose not to. The reason is that our bodies “need” it. Often people don’t want to reduce stress because they use it as compensation for their nutritional deficiencies. According to Dr. James…

Insight from an egret. — How to be enough with who I am? Here’s the secret of an egret. I was walking along the creek, feeling empty. I didn’t even know why. There was this unsettling feeling that something was amiss. I know this feeling so well. It haunts me. It always tells me the…

From an English to Russian translator. — I started translating a new book for one of my old clients today (Russian into English). So I thought I would jot down some thoughts and insights on the process of translating a book from a co-creator’s standpoint. Translating a book is an act of co-creation, not a mechanical process How do you translate a book? I start with the mindset. Having…

“Knowledge puffs up and love builds up.” (St. Paul) — How to win an argument by losing it? Here’s my take on it. My teenage daughter has different political views. I didn’t quite notice how and where she got them. But the more we tried to “talk her out of it,” “show her how things really are,” “open her eyes,”…