PSCHOLOGY TRUISMS AND GOLDEN NUGGETS

- "The unexamined life is not worth living." (Socrates) - Emphasizes the importance of self-reflection.

- "The good life is a process, not a state of being." (Carl Rogers) - Happiness comes from ongoing growth, not a destination.

- "Change happens at the pace of trust." - Therapeutic change requires developing a trusting relationship.

- "Progress begins when we accept our weaknesses." - Self-acceptance allows room for growth.

- "Feelings are not facts." - Our emotions don't always reflect reality.

- "Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional." - We can't avoid pain, but can change our response.

- "What we resist, persists." (Carl Jung) - Acceptance is often the path out of suffering.

- "The heart has its reasons which reason does not know." (Blaise Pascal) - Logic alone doesn't motivate change.

- "Begin challenging your own assumptions." - Questioning our beliefs helps us see new perspectives.

- "Be the change you wish to see." (Gandhi) - Model the growth you want to cultivate in your life.

- "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" - Gestalt psychology perspective, systems should be viewed holistically.

- "Correlation does not imply causation" - Just because two things are related does not mean one causes the other.

- "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional" - We can't avoid pain but can change our response to it.

- "Change is the only constant" - As Heraclitus said, everything is in a state of flux and transformation.

- "Every behaviour has a positive intention" - Even dysfunctional behaviours arise from an attempt to meet a need.

- "Thoughts influence emotions and behaviour" - Core premise of cognitive behavioural therapy.

- "The map is not the territory" - Our perceptions don't perfectly reflect reality.

- "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts" - Systems thinking perspective in psychology.

- "Where attention goes, energy flows" - We strengthen what we consistently focus on.

- "The brain that is challenged, grows" - Nature desires growth and learns from experience.

- "What we focus on expands" - The mind reinforces what we give attention to, for better or worse.

- "Everything looks like a nail to a hammer" - We view the world through the lens of our dominant paradigms.

- "What we resist persists" - Fighting against something psychologically strengthens its hold.

- "Feedback is the breakfast of champions" - We grow the most through honest self-reflection and input. This one reminds me of "you win or you learn."

- "Progress begins when we accept our weaknesses" - Self-acceptance allows space for growth and change.

- "The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them" -Perspective shapes our psychological reality.

- "What is repressed is often expressed" - Suppressed emotions/impulses tend to leak out in other ways.

- "Nurture matters more early, nature matters more later" - Interplay between genes and environment shifts over time.

- "Neurons that fire together wire together" - The brain reinforces frequently used connections.

- "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool." (Richard Feynman) - We are susceptible to self-deception.

- "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." (Friedrich Nietzsche) - Adversity can be a catalyst for growth.

- "The healthy man does not torture others - generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers." (Carl Jung) - Hurt people often hurt others.

- "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana) - The primacy of learning from experience.

- "The shoe that fits one person pinches another." (Carl Jung) - Psychological principles must account for individual differences.

- "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." - Our perspective shapes our reality.

- "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances." (Viktor Frankl) - We have power over our mindset.

- "That which is not brought to consciousness comes to us as fate." (Carl Jung) - Unresolved issues reemerge until addressed.

- "The task is not so much to see what no one has seen, but to think what no body yet has thought about that which everyone sees." (Arthur Schopenhauer) - Finding novel insights.

- "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." (Shakespeare) - Our judgments create our reality.

- "Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny." (Mahatma Gandhi) - The progression of human behaviour.

- "That which you manifest is before you." (Marcus Aurelius) - You create your own reality.

- "The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest. The first to forget is the happiest." - Paths to conflict resolution.

- "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) - Our inner world shapes the outer.

- "Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." (Carl Jung) - Self-awareness illuminates.

- "The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change." (Carl Rogers) - Acceptance allows change.

- "That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly." (Thomas Paine) - We value what requires effort.

- "We cannot change anything until we accept it." - Acceptance is the starting point for transformation.

- "What we think, we become." - The Buddha - Our thoughts shape our reality.

- "The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases." - Carl Jung - Customize principles to the individual.

- "Your emotional brain responds to imagined events as if they are real." - Our minds don't distinguish well between perception and conception.

- "Everything looks like a nail to a hammer." - Abraham Maslow - We view things through the lens of our governing paradigm.

- "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." - Friedrich Nietzsche - Hardship can be a catalyst for growth.

- "The healthy man does not torture others; generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers." - Carl Jung - Hurt people often hurt others.

- "Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself." - Erich Fromm - Forging your own identity and self-actualizing.

- "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude." - Viktor Frankl - We have power over our mindset.

- "Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart." - Carl Jung - Self-awareness illuminates.