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To create worry humans elongate fear with anticipation and memory, expand it in imagination and fuel it with emotion. The uniquely human mental process called worrying depends upon having a brain that can reason, remember, reflect, feel, and imagine. Only humans have a brain big enough to do this simultaneously and do it well.
Edward Hallowell
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Worrying is a complex human experience driven by our ability to think and feel deeply about future uncertainties.

This quote by Edward Hallowell highlights the human tendency to worry, which is enabled by our advanced cognitive abilities. Unlike any other species, humans can combine reasoning, memory, reflection, emotion, and imagination to construct fears about the future, thereby amplifying our anxieties and concerns through our thoughts and feelings.

Themes

WorryFearImaginationEmotionHuman Mind

In practice

Example use cases

In a mental health seminar discussing the effects of worry on daily life.

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