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Stress is not the spice of life any more than arsenic is. And without it, you won't feel bored.

Andrew Bernstein

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Andrew Bernstein
Age: 65
Born: 1959
Born: June 6
Author
Philosopher
University Teacher
Life
Arsenic
Spice
Spices
Bored
Stress
Without
Feel
Feels

More quotes by Andrew Bernstein

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A hero holds purposes appropriate to man and is, therefore, a thinker.
Andrew Bernstein
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People around the world now complain about stressors everyday, and the word shows up throughout professional and lay literature. But in reality there is no such thing as a stressor. Why not? Because nothing has the inherent power to provoke stress.
Andrew Bernstein
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Many argue that Christianity is different from other religions - that it is primarily about love of one's fellow man. The Crusades, The Inquisition, Calvin's Geneva all prove that this is not the case. These events were pre-eminently about obedience to authority.
Andrew Bernstein
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The truth is that stress doesn't come from your boss, your kids, your spouse, traffic jams, health challenges, or other circumstances. It comes from your thoughts about these circumstances.
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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.
Andrew Bernstein
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The less you think counterfactually, the less you experience stress. Stress, in this light, isn't a bad thing. It's simply a warning system telling you that your mind has lost touch with what's real.
Andrew Bernstein
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The elusive truth is that there is nothing stress-producing in the physical world. Things simply are. Molecules move. Light and sound appear.
Andrew Bernstein
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Statism – the subordination of the individual to the state - leads inevitably to the most hideous oppression.
Andrew Bernstein
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Throughout history, independent minds have carried mankind forward. Whether they identified how to make fire or manufacture tools, develop rational philosophy or create man-glorifying art, pioneer scientific knowledge or invent the electric light, independent thinkers have created the goods on which human life and prosperity depend.
Andrew Bernstein
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We need to distinguish between stress and stimulation. Having deadlines, setting goals, and pushing yourself to perform at capacity are stimulating. Stress is when you're anxious, upset, or frustrated, which dramatically reduce your ability to perform.
Andrew Bernstein
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Altruism demands that an individual serve others, but doesn’t stipulate whether those others should be one’s family, or the homeless, or society as a whole. Collectivism states that, in politics, society comes first and the individual must obey. Collectivism is the application of the altruist ethics to politics.
Andrew Bernstein
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During the financial crisis, I worked with hundreds of executives who struggled as a result of their thoughts about job security. When their beliefs changed, so did their emotional experience - and they were then able to focus on the task at hand more effectively.
Andrew Bernstein
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Some people are so used to experiencing stress that they don't remember what life was like without it.
Andrew Bernstein
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Even in this secular country, the threat posed by religious fundamentalists is never very far away. Every major religious text exhorts the same principles - that of unyielding obedience to a supernatural being, and renunciation of the intellect and personal aspirations.
Andrew Bernstein
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Remember that stress doesn't come from what's going on in your life. It comes from your thoughts about what's going on in your life.
Andrew Bernstein
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If you're successful and stressed out, you're succeeding in spite of your stress, not because of it.
Andrew Bernstein
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Stress is the negative whirlwind of emotions that gets imposed on top of our stimulation and engagement.
Andrew Bernstein
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The reason humans experience so much more stress than other species isn't just because we think more, but also because we think differently.
Andrew Bernstein
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You might think that shifting your thoughts is as easy as setting your mind to it. But stressful thoughts aren't held in place through choice or will power. They're held in place through perceived truth value.
Andrew Bernstein
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It's time we learned the truth about stress. It's time we identified the thoughts that actually create our stress and learned to dismantle them one by one.
Andrew Bernstein