- "Every ounce of energy you waste worrying about someone else’s progress or performance is one less ounce of energy you can spend on yourself, on building your skills and making your own strides forward."
- "It's no surprise that life is richer and more fulfilling when we actively invest our time and energy in the things that are most important or meaningful to us. Yet all too often our attempts to avoid unpleasant feelings get in the way of doing what we truly value."
- "If we live a full life, we will feel the full range of human emotions."
- "Looking after myself is a full time job."
- "Life is like climbing a mountain: there are easy stretches and tough ones. But if you’re open and interested in your experience, then the obstacles you encounter will help you to learn, grow and develop, so that as time goes on, your climbing skills improve. Naturally, it’s far easier to be mindful when the going is easy, than when it gets tough. Yet the more you face your difficulties with mindfulness, the more you’ll find you grow stronger, calmer and wiser. This is easier said than done, but you can do it."
- "The more you open your eyes and notice the things you’ve taken for granted, and the more you live by what you value while appreciating what you have, the richer, fuller and more meaningful your life becomes. Mindfulness skills help you cultivate an attitude of openness, interest and receptiveness toward the world around you. This attitude in itself will make life more rewarding. You’ll notice more opportunities, you’ll be more stimulated and interested, you’ll find more contentment and your relationships will improve. I like to put it like this: Life gives most to those who make the most out of what life gives."
- "The biggest factor that contributes to a vulnerable identity is “all-or-nothing” thinking: I’m either competent or incompetent, good or evil, worthy of love or not. … it leaves our identity extremely unstable, making us hypersensitive to feedback. …All-or-nothing identities are about as sturdy as a two-legged stool."
- "You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf"
- "The observing self doesn’t get into a struggle with reality; it sees things as they are, without resisting. It’s only when we start judging things as bad or wrong or unfair that we resist them."
- "Our thinking self tells us that things shouldn’t be as they are, that we shouldn’t be as we are, that reality is in the wrong and we are in the right. It tells us that life would be better somewhere else or we would be happier if only we were different. Thus, the thinking self is like a pair of dark goggles that dims and obscures our view of the world, disconnecting us from reality through boredom, distraction or resistance."
- "…when you respond to your emotions with acceptance, they don’t become chronic, and therefore they don’t hurt you. Acceptance breaks the vicious cycle of struggle and frees you to invest your time and energy in life-enhancing activities."
- "Take mistakes seriously, but never personally."
- "It doesn't pay to get discouraged."
- "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."
- "life gives most to those who make the most out of what life gives"
- "The more you try to avoid unpleasant feelings, the harder it will be to make important changes."
- "Don’t put ridiculous expectations on yourself, deciding that you’re never going to act on self-defeating urges ever again. Of course you will—you’re human. You’ll screw up again and again over the course of your life. But remember: the instant you are aware of what you’re doing, you have a chance to do something more effective. And over time you’ll get better and better at catching yourself earlier and earlier."
- "Naturally, it’s far easier to be mindful when the going is easy, than when it gets tough. Yet the more you face your difficulties with mindfulness, the more you’ll find you grow stronger, calmer and wiser."
- "Remember, each time you act in line with your values, no matter how tiny that action is, you’re contributing to a rich and meaningful life."
- "Commitment means we take effective action, allow ourselves the freedom to make mistakes, accept ourselves compassionately when we screw up, and carry on moving in a valued direction."
- "It's hard to make time, but to waste it is easy." (chiasmus!)
- "My basic rule of thumb is I don’t want people wasting my time, so I won’t waste their time, but I shouldn’t waste my own time."
- "Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."
- "change occurs gradually through tiny adjustments"
- "Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
- "Don't count the days, make the days count."
- "I am not trying to be better, I am training to be better."
- "Practice will help, but only if you have a strategy."
- "It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character."
- "Most problems are potential improvements screaming at you. Whenever a problem surfaces, you have in front of you an opportunity to improve. The more painful the problem, the louder it is screaming."
- "Jung said the only way to achieve true selfhood is to create what no one but you could possibly create and all the other stories are just guides to get us there."
- "When trying to be more productive, a good place to start is to form a regular habit of decluttering your mind."
- "‘Is this thought helpful? Does it help me take action to create the life I want?’ If it is helpful, then pay attention. If it’s not, then defuse it."
- "It’s a curious truth that when you gently pay attention to negative emotions, they tend to dissipate — but positive ones expand."
- "Self-care is the hard work you put in to build a place that you no longer need to escape from."
- "There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy, we sow anonymous benefits upon the world, which remain unknown even to ourselves, or when they are disclosed, surprise nobody as much as the benefactor. …A happy (person) is a better thing to find than a five-pound note. He or she is a radiating focus of goodwill; and their entrance into a room is as though another candle had been lighted. …they practically demonstrate the great Theorem of the Liveableness of Life."
- "The more light you allow within you, the brighter the world you live in will be."
apr 11 2014 ∞
sep 3 2021 +
