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Suppose you read about a pill that you could take once a day to reduce anxiety and increase your contentment. Would you take it? Suppose further that the pill has a great variety of side effects, all of them good: increased self-esteem, empathy, and trust; it even improves memory. Suppose, finally, that the pill is all natural and costs nothing. Now would you take it? The pill exists. It is meditation.
Jonathan Haidt
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Meditation can greatly enhance mental well-being and personal qualities without any negative effects.

This quote by Jonathan Haidt highlights the profound benefits of meditation, suggesting that it serves as a metaphorical 'pill' that can significantly improve one's mental health, self-esteem, and interpersonal skills. It emphasizes the idea that meditation is a natural, cost-free practice that can enhance life in ways that many might overlook.

Themes

MeditationAnxietyContentmentSelf-EsteemMindfulness

In practice

Example use cases

During a wellness seminar, I quoted Haidt to encourage attendees to consider meditation as a tool for better mental health.

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If you grow up in a WEIRD society, you become so well educated in the ethic of autonomy that you can detect oppression and inequality even where the apparent victims see nothing wrong.
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When you hear someone criticize a policy on the other side, that's fine. But when you start hearing motive-mongering and demonization, stand up to it just as you would if it were something that was racist or sexist. If we avoid the demonization, disagreements can be positive.
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We humans are really good at forming groups to compete, and then dissolving the groups and reforming them along different lines to compete in a different way.
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