Bessel van der Kolk Quotes
Research from these new disciplines has revealed that trauma produces actual physiological changes, including a recalibration of the brain’s alarm system, an increase in stress hormone activity, and alterations in the system that filters relevant information from irrelevant. We now know that trauma compromises the brain area that communicates the physical, embodied feeling of being alive. These changes explain why traumatized individuals become hypervigilant to threat at the expense of spontaneously engaging in their day-to-day lives. They also help us understand why traumatized people so often keep repeating the same problems and have such trouble learning from experience. We now know that their behaviors are not the result of moral failings or signs of lack of willpower or bad character—they are caused by actual changes in the brain.

Quotes to Explore
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People now realize that globalization is not only for the multi-nationals and the circulation of money.
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This work made me more and more interested in biological matter, and I decided that I really wanted to work on the X-ray analysis of biological molecules.
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I love clothes but I have spent so much of my professional life creating an image of one kind or another that it is nice not to care about it in life and let your skin breathe.
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We have a great country, we are a great nation - let us trust in it.
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I trust my hand. If I go into a space with a roll of paper, I can make a work, some kind of work, and feel pretty satisfied.
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If the blood humor is too strong and robust, calm it with balance and harmony.
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I was a complete brat but was an angel with my mother. I used to be perfectly behaved, and my mother used to be like... 'Really, are you badly behaved with other people?' I was like, 'No, not at all.' But the minute she used to leave the room, I was a brat.
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I run about four to five miles, three days a week. I have four young children, so pretty much the only time I can get away is real early in the morning.
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We're all trying to be Beyonce and Sheryl Sandberg at the same time.
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I feel like I ask people who have been in the industry for a while a lot of questions.
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Todo es un poco de oscuridad, hasta la misma luz.
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In my everyday life, I'm a jeans and button-up shirt kind of guy.
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At root, the Tea Party is nothing more than a them-versus-us thing.
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I absolutely love Johnny Depp, and I genuinely think he's one of the best actors of our time.
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Many scientists think that philosophy has no place, so for me it's a sad time because the role of reflection, contemplation, meditation, self inquiry, insight, intuition, imagination, creativity, free will, is in a way not given any importance, which is the domain of philosophers.
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Put your idol worship on firemen or a schoolteacher or a rescue worker or a first-aid worker or Doctors Without Borders. I love those guys. Those are your heroes.
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I believe marriages should be legally defined as between one man and one woman.
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Granted, everybody is different, but I think it's real important to know all the people that you are around, and how they operate their history, and things like that. You know where they are coming from a little bit, and you don't insult them, or take something for granted.
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I was the first person in the world to audition for 'The Hobbit'. The casting director told me that when I went in. That's a lot of pressure, isn't it? The first person in the world.
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Unless you choose to do great things with it, it makes no difference how much you are rewarded, or how much power you have.
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Diplomacy, n : 1. The patriotic art of lying for one's country. 2. The art of letting someone have your way. 3. The art of saying 'nice doggy' until you can find a rock. A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age.
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The best service to mankind is to become immersed in one's True Self.
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Research from these new disciplines has revealed that trauma produces actual physiological changes, including a recalibration of the brain’s alarm system, an increase in stress hormone activity, and alterations in the system that filters relevant information from irrelevant. We now know that trauma compromises the brain area that communicates the physical, embodied feeling of being alive. These changes explain why traumatized individuals become hypervigilant to threat at the expense of spontaneously engaging in their day-to-day lives. They also help us understand why traumatized people so often keep repeating the same problems and have such trouble learning from experience. We now know that their behaviors are not the result of moral failings or signs of lack of willpower or bad character—they are caused by actual changes in the brain.