Forget self-help: we're programmed for change

Our brain plasticity makes us far more adaptable than we think we are
“This life,” wrote the French poet Charles Baudelaire more than a century ago, “is a hospital where each patient is possessed with the desire to change his bed.” No “How to Change Your Bed in Seven Days!” poem followed, alas. Today we still yearn for better bodies or relationships, jobs or houses. We crave money, security, health, fulfilment, peace of mind, success, adventure or that most sl