Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart

It's the same with the wound in our hearts. We need to give them our attention so that they can heal. Otherwise the wounds continue to cause us pain. Sometimes for a very long time. We're all going to get hurt. But here's the trick - they also serve an amazing purpose. When our hearts are wounded that's when they open. We grow through pain. We grow through difficult situations. That's why you have to embrace each and every difficult thing in your life.

She taught me the pointlessness of wishing for a different past and the futility of worrying about all of the frightening futures over which I had no control.

Another mystery of the brain is that it will always choose what is familiar over what is unfamiliar. By visualizing my own future success, I was making this success familiar to my brain. Intention is a funny thing, and whatever the brain puts its intention on is what it sees.

Others will create your reality if you can’t make it for yourself.

There are a lot of things in life we can’t control. It’s hard, especially when you’re a child, to feel like you have control over anything. Like you can change anything. But you can control your body and you can control your mind. That might not sound like a lot, but it’s very powerful. It can change everything.

You need to understand that what you think you want isn’t always what’s best for you and others. You need to open your heart to learn what you want before you use this magic, otherwise if you don’t really know what you want and you get what you think you want, you’re going to end up getting what you don’t want.” Huh?

Each of us chooses what is acceptable in our lives. As kids, we don't get a lot of choice. We are born into families and situations, and it's all really out of our control. But as we get older, we choose. Consciously or unconsciously, we decide how we are going to allow ourselves to be treated. What will you accept? What won't you accept? You're going to have to choose, and you're going to have to stand up for yourself. No one else can do it for you.

People see only what they think is there rather than what's actually there.

When your mind wanders away from your breath it's not good or bad. It's just doing what it does. Just notice it. Then guide it back to your breath. Help it focus again. That's all. You just have to show it who is in control.

You can turn this little tiny light into a huge fireball with only one thing–your mind.

Research has shown that the more connected we are socially, the longer we will live and the faster we will recover when we get ill. In truth, isolation and loneliness puts us at a greater risk for early disease and death than smoking. Authentic social connection has a profound effect on your mental health—it even exceeds the value of exercise and ideal body weight on your physical health. It makes you feel good. Social connection triggers the same reward centers in your brain that are triggered when people do drugs, or drink alcohol, or eat chocolate. In other words, we get sick alone, and we get well together.

Everyone has a story, and I have learned that, at the core of it, most of our stories are more similar than not.

We're talking about what you felt. Feelings are not right or wrong. They are just feelings.

I didn’t have anyone to bother me—to tell me to do my homework, wake me up for school, or tell me what to wear. But I was only pretending. Teenagers crave freedom, but only if they’re standing on a base that is stable and secure. •

Everything didn't have to be broken just because something was broken. I didn't have to be broken.

Things don't always happen the way we think they will, but I've learned that they happen exactly the way they're supposed to happen.

But you can control your body and you can control your mind. That might not sound like a lot, but it's very powerful. It can change anything.

Feel your heart beating and relax the muscles around

But it takes work, and some things will take longer to happen than others. And sometimes it won't happen exactly the way you expect. But I promise you, everything you put on your list, everything you feel in your heart, everything you think about and imagine with your mind, if you truly believe, if you work very hard, will happen. You have to see it and then you have to go after it. You can't just wait in your room. You actually have to go get good grades, and go to medical school, and learn how to be a doctor. But in some mysterious way you will also be drawing it to you, and you will become what you imagine. If you use your mind and your heart, it will happen.

I reach in blindly but knowing that there is more to this life than we can possibly see, and that each of us is capable of doing amazing things far beyond what we think is possible.

I thought I was lucky because, unlike most of my friends, I never had to be home at a particular time. I didn’t want to get home until late because I knew if I got home earlier there would often be a fight in progress or some other event that made me wish I were somewhere else, someone else. Sometimes the thing you want most is just someone to tell you, tell you anything. Because that means you’re important. And sometimes it’s not that you’re not important, it’s just you’re not seen because the pain of those around you makes you invisible.

Others can create your reality only if you don't create it yourself.

Equanimity is to have an evenness of temperament even during difficult times.

I am worthy. I am loved. I am cared for. I care for others. I choose only good for myself. I choose only good for others. I love myself. I love others. I open my heart. My heart is open.

...it is your thoughts that create reality. Others can create your reality only if you don't create it yourself.

It's the same with the wounds in our heart. We need to give them our attention so that they can heal. Otherwise the wound continues to cause us pain. Sometimes for a very long time. We're all going to get hurt. That's just the way it is. But here's the trick about the things that hurt us and cause us pain–they also serve an amazing purpose. When our hearts are wounded that's when they open. We grow through pain. We grow through difficult situations. That's why you have to embrace each and every difficult thing in your life.

Sometimes the thing you want most is just someone to tell you, tell you anything. Because that means you're important. And sometimes it's not that you're not important, it's just you're not seen because the pain of those around you makes you invisible.

The head is powerful, but it can only get us what we really want if we open our heart first.

Ruth wasn’t a supernatural being, even though at twelve I like to imagine she was. She was simply a human being who had the profound gift of empathy and intuition, of being able to care about another human being without expecting anything in return.

The body is full of signs about what’s going on inside us. It’s really amazing. Someone can ask you how you are feeling and you might say, ‘I don’t know,’ because maybe you don’t know or maybe you don’t want to say, but your body always knows how you are feeling. When you are afraid. When you are happy. When you are excited. When you are nervous. When you are angry. When you are jealous. When you are sad. Your mind might think you do not know, but if you ask your body, it will tell you. It has a mind of its own, in a way. It reacts. It responds. Sometimes it reacts the right way in a situation, sometimes the wrong way.