Jane Mayer Quotes

I've been one of those people that hold on to a little bit more stress than others. People take certain situations a little bit differently.

Anxiety is essential to the human condition. The confrontation with anxiety can relieve us from boredom, sharpen the sensitivity and assure the presence of tension that is necessary to preserve human existence.

Stress is the spice of life.

The struggle for life is not only the material and economic one. Comfort is no protection from anxiety.

The number of stressors has multiplied exponentially: traffic, money, success, work/life balance, the economy, the environment, parenting, family conflict, relationships, disease. As the nature of human life has become far more complicated, our ancient stress response hasn't been able to keep up.

If there is anything unhealthy in your reactions, just bear in mind that sickness is the means by which an organism frees itself from what is alien; so one must simply help it to be sick, to have its whole sickness and to break out with it, since that is the way it gets better.

Probably, if you are successful in this world you are stressed, and if you are a failure, you are bored!

When mental sickness increases until it reaches the danger point, do not exhaust yourself by efforts to trace back to original causes. Better accept them as inevitable and save your strength to fight against the effects.

To worry is to become accessible, unwittingly accessible. And once you worry you cling to anything out of desperation; and once you cling you are bound to get exhausted or to exhaust whoever or whatever you are clinging to.

In an era of stress and anxiety, when the present seems unstable and the future unlikely, the natural response is to retreat and withdraw from reality, taking recourse either in fantasies of the future or in modified visions of a half-imagined past.

Stress is the negative whirlwind of emotions that gets imposed on top of our stimulation and engagement.

Sometimes it all gets a little too much, but you gotta realize that soon the fog will clear up.

In an age of madness, to expect to be untouched by madness is a form of madness. But the pursuit of sanity can be a form of madness, too

Anxiety destroys scale, and suffering makes us lose perspective.

Ah," said the jailer, "do not always brood over what is impossible, or you will be mad in a fortnight.

The problem is that this speeded-up life and stress in America causes us to cut off our feelings, so we are out of touch with our reality.

If you can manage to experience three positive emotions for every one negative emotion … you dramatically improve your health and your ability to successfully tackle any problem you're facing.

The measure of our mindfulness, the touchstone for sanity in this society, is our level of productivity, our attention to responsibility, our ability to plain and simple hold down a job. If you're still at the point when you're even just barely going through the motions--showing up at work, paying the bills--you are still okay or okay enough. A desire not to acknowledge sadness in ourselves or those close to us--better known these days as denial, is such a strong urge that plenty of people prefer to think that until you are actually flying out of a window, you don't have a problem.

If you didn't have anxiety, then you wouldn't have passion for anything. The reason we have anxiety is because you care and you're thoughtful.

Wise men mingle mirth with their cares, as a help either to forget or overcome them; but to resort to intoxication for the ease of one's mind is to cure melancholy by madness.

To suffer some anxiety, some depression, some disappointment, even some failure is normal.

I mean, if you need a minute to yourself, you aren't going to get it, but you just have to realize it's what you signed up for, because those difficult moments are what make for a much better show.

I learnt an enormous amount, but there came a point where I found there was too much stress. It was no fun any more. Outside of the chessboard I avoid conflict, so I thought this wasn't worth it.

The point is, you see," said Ford, "that there is no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later.

I am stressed because once I am flattened out so thin to be able to slide under a doorway, I may never be able to ever be unflattened so I could be regular sized again.