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Among life’s cruelest truths is this one: Wonderful things are especially wonderful the first time they happen, but their wonderfulness wanes with repetition.

…studies of those who survive major trauma suggest that the vast majority do quite well, and that a significant portion claim that their lives were enhanced by the experience.

Paying rapt attention… increases your capacity for concentration, expands your inner boundaries, and lifts your spirits, but more important, it simply makes you feel that life is worth living.

…no matter who you are, your joie de vivre mostly derives from paying attention to someone or something that interests you.

…when you lose focus, your mind tends to fix on what could be wrong with your life instead of what’s right, putting you in a bad frame of mind.

…focusing on negative emotions, particularly when they don’t serve their primary purpose of promoting problem-solving, exacts a high cost: you spend a lot of time feeling crummy even if your life is pretty good.

…like physical fitness, the mental sort that sustains the focused life can be cultivated.

…attention’s ability to change your brain and transform your experience isn’t limited to childhood but prevails throughout life.

…having social ties is the single best predictor of a longer, healthier, more satisfying life.

Whenever you squander attention on something that doesn’t put your brain through its paces and stimulate change, your mind stagnates a little and life feels dull.