ABOUT CALM CLARITY

Author of the viral Medium piece, “Poor and Traumatized at Harvard,” Due Quach (pronounced "Zway Kwok") shares her Calm Clarity program to show readers how to deal with toxic stress and adversity.

We often don’t realize how much control we have over our thoughts, feelings, and actions–on some days, the most minor irritation can upset us, but on others, we are in our best form and can rise to challenges with grace. These fluctuations depend on the neural networks firing in our brains, and we have the power to consciously break hardwired thought patterns. Due Quach developed an intimate understanding of the brain during her personal journey of healing from post-traumatic stress disorder.

According to Quach, people function in three primary emotional states: Brain 1.0, Brain 2.0, and Brain 3.0. In Brain 1.0, people act out of fear and self-preservation. Brain 2.0 involves instant gratification and chasing short-term rewards at the expense of long-term well-being. Brain 3.0 is a state of mind that Quach calls “calm clarity,” in which people’s actions are aligned with their core values. As Quach confronted PTSD and successfully weaned herself off medication, she learned how to activate, exercise, and strengthen Brain 3.0 like a muscle. In Calm Clarity, she draws on the latest scientific research and ancient spiritual traditions alike to show us how we too can take ownership of our thoughts, feelings, and actions in order to be our best selves.

Due Quach is the founder and CEO of Calm Clarity, a social enterprise that uses science to help people master their mind and be their best self. A refugee from Vietnam and a graduate of Harvard College and the Wharton MBA program, Quach overcame the long-term effects of poverty and trauma by turning to neuroscience and meditation. She built a successful business career in management consulting in the US and Asia and then in private equity investments in Southeast Asia. Quach designed the Calm Clarity Program to be accessible to people of all backgrounds and now leads Calm Clarity workshops in inner-city high schools, university lecture halls, and corporate executive board rooms alike. She is also the founding chair and executive director of the Collective Success Network, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that supports low-income, first-generation college students in achieving their academic and career aspirations.

Editorial Reviews

"Calm Clarity tells Due Quach’s story of transformation, weaving her rich life experience with in-depth scientific insights from across diverse fields. Due has created practical and accessible tools for readers to not just be inspired by her transformation, but to set off and experience their own profound changes as well." 

Sharon Salzberg, New York Times bestselling author of Real Love and Real Happiness

"Calm Clarity is refreshingly readable, easily accessible, and understandable, a very valuable addition to contemporary books on transforming our minds and creating the foundation of a happy life."

Sylvia Boorstein, PhD, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job

"Our world is in need of healing because there is so much pain and negativity being transmitted. Calm Clarity provides a powerful, practical, science-based approach to healing and transforming our pain and cultivating compassion to enable others to do so also. The compelling story of Due Quach's personal modern-day metamorphosis from a skeptic into a mystic will touch the hearts and minds of seekers everywhere, and her ongoing efforts to bring these tools to low-income communities to end the transmission of toxic stress and trauma is inspiring."

Richard Rohr, bestselling author of Falling Upward

"This is an extraordinary work by an extraordinary woman."

Allan Lokos, author of Patience: The Art of Peaceful Living

"Due’s rich personal narrative is interwoven with deep research into the way our brains work, offering lessons and tools that all of us should embrace for our own good and for the good of the world we live in."

Philip W. Lovejoy, Executive Director of the Harvard Alumni Association

"One of the best books I have ever read. Yes, this book is about rewiring your brain for greater wisdom and joy, but it also shares Due's compelling story of resilience and grit, a very personal account of shifting from entanglement to enlightenment."

Rick Bellingham, EdD, CEO of iobility

“Accessible yet deep, Calm Clarity helps readers achieve inner transformation, untangle emotional knots, and find clarity. This book is a revelatory and inspiring guide on the spiritual path that also helps people develop the leader inside them.”

Patricio Barriga, CEO and President of Fagor America In

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