If you had to choose between spending a few minutes alone with your thoughts or receiving an electric shock to escape the discomfort, what would you pick? A study conducted a decade ago found that most participants consistently preferred the shock over sitting quietly with their own thoughts. (F...

I Must Have Been Around 13 or 14 Years Old Every day after school, I’d slip in through the backdoor of our shed, park my bicycle, and pull a long skirt over my shorts. It was summertime, but my parents had made it clear—I wasn’t allowed to wear shorts. They didn’t want me showing any leg at scho...

    I was doing my thing, walking toward the big entry doors of NATO HQ, trying to find my way to my new office. We had just moved into the glass palace. It was stunning, but at first, my sense of direction inside it was a little blurry. All of a sudden, I could feel her walking next to me—one o...

  There was a time in my life when I would lie awake at night, overthinking and stressing about things that, in hindsight, didn’t matter as much as I thought they did. The result? Sleepless nights that drained my energy and left me struggling to get through each day. It’s ironic how much we take...

Two Lives: The Public Success and Private Pain It was my third year working in Southern France, and by all appearances, I was thriving. I worked at the NATO Helicopter Management Agency, enjoying a career I had worked hard to build. I loved my job, my team, and the amazing opportunities it broug...