Philippa Perry Quotes

A relapse doesn't mean you'll never walk down the path you prefer. But I think relapses are almost an inevitable part of any course of self-development.

If we think of our brains as a map, those early roads are like grooves, tram tracks, easy to fall into.

In order to stretch ourselves we do need to experience the vulnerability of not knowing the outcome.

Our emotional map is laid down mainly in relationship with our earliest caregiver in the first couple of years of life.

If we are not using our brains' capacity for challenge it feels to me as though it atrophies like an unused muscle.

A sense of achievement improves general confidence and self-esteem.

There are probably times where the creative process is not helped by collaboration.

I am talking about being optimistic enough to sow some seeds in the hope that some of them will germinate and grow into flowers.

Our brains do not have to be fixed, they can be plastic.

Whether you plan or whether you flow in order to be creative probably isn't the point. The point is to keep practicing to maintain neural pathways and to establish new ones by learning new skills.

Meditation is focused attention and the more we practise focusing our brains the more connections we build up.

We don't have to have suffered brain damage to take advantage of the plastic nature of our brains.

When we had to survive on our wits, gather and kill our food from scratch and be more at the mercy of our environment than we are today, we probably had enough challenge to keep our brains healthy.

If we keep practicing mental skills it is likely we can strengthen neural connections and make new connections.

After a stroke we can re-learn how to talk, because by practicing we can establish different pathways in the brain, circumnavigating the damaged part.

If you start from a position of I'm a no-hoper, in a paradoxical kind of way you are not risking being vulnerable.

Neurogenesis continues throughout life and we have the capacity to establish new neural pathways and strengthen existing ones.

It seems whether we have a tendency towards being flexible or structured affects how we create, how we parent, how we work.

People tend to slip up and go along the old road before they realise what they've done and climb out of it again.

The trouble is if we take no new steps to try a new challenge, our comfort zone doesn't seem just to stay still, but retract.

Two brains are better than one. You've twice the brain capacity and you have two sets of experiences and genes to bring to any challenge.