You're a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass) Quotes

“Anxiety doesn’t tell us very much. It’s like the “check engine” light in your car, which tells you something’s wrong without telling you what it is.”
― Mike McHargue, You're a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass): Embracing the Emotions, Habits, and Mystery That Make You You

“I think we’ve entered an era of unintended consequences. Technologies designed to liberate the human mind from mundane tasks and enable us to communicate on a personal, global scale have instead been used to disturb our sleep, destroy our productivity, polarize our politics, and drive us into compulsive behavioral patterns that steal our capacity to engage with others socially. And it does all that while making us feel more productive, but actually lowering the quality of our work.”
― Mike McHargue, You're a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass): Embracing the Emotions, Habits, and Mystery That Make You You

“Niceness is disembodied, while kindness begins in our guts and in our bones. Niceness is a veneer, but kindness goes to the heart.”
― Mike McHargue, You're a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass): Embracing the Emotions, Habits, and Mystery That Make You You

“Though you may think of yourself as the conductor of the orchestra that is your life, you are more like the orchestra itself, a myriad of musicians coming together to create a single symphony.”
― Mike McHargue, You're a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass): Embracing the Emotions, Habits, and Mystery That Make You You

“Researchers have found that heavy social media use increases depression risk by 27 percent, and heavy smartphone and tablet users are 35 percent more likely to have suicidal ideation. Far from providing late-night monologue material, our relationship to our devices has life-and-death stakes.”
― Mike McHargue, You're a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass): Embracing the Emotions, Habits, and Mystery That Make You You

“But the ventral branch also runs to your heart and lungs, which means your brain stem, middle ear, heart, and diaphragm can respond to the tone of someone’s voice several seconds faster than the structures in your neocortex can process the content of their actual words. A sharp word can literally take your breath away. How we say something matters as much as what we say, because our automatic nervous system is listening and responding to tone long before our thinking brains get the message.”
― Mike McHargue, You're a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass): Embracing the Emotions, Habits, and Mystery That Make You You

“Your brain isn’t here to show you an honest picture of the world, or to make you happy. It’s not here to make rational decisions, or to help you advance up the corporate ladder. Your body spent the energy it takes to build something as powerful as your brain for one reason and one reason only: Your brain helps you survive on a planet that is often hostile to life.”
― Mike McHargue, You're a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass): Embracing the Emotions, Habits, and Mystery That Make You You