Most people think that once they’ve found their purpose and the power to practice it, they’ll finally be at peace. Actually, though, it’s only by starting in a place of peace that we find our purpose and power. Peace is the first step and the final lesson we all need to learn.
Learning to spot narcissists and deal with their destructive behavior can save you the world of hurt that awaits anyone who mistakes the near enemy for a friend.
A joyful life isn’t about others; it’s about the brightness that is associated with being alive. Your path to it is through anything that replaces thinking with pure flight, pure joy.
People don’t cry when they lose their hope. They cry when they get it back.
This very moment of your life, if you experience it fully, will show you astonishing wonders and exquisite delights.
The way out of fear isn’t safety. It’s freedom.
Many people think passion is a fuzzy feeling that makes taking action effortless. In fact, it’s the gritty courage and tenacity to forge onward...
My anguish came from my hypothesis that other people’s hypothetical hypotheses about me mattered. Ridiculous!
The more you claim your own destiny, the easier it will be to love unconditionally .
To care for someone can mean to adore them, feed them, tend their wounds. But care can also signify sorrow, as in ‘bowed down by cares.’ Or anxiety, as in ‘Careful!’ Or investment in an outcome, as in ‘Who cares?’ The word love has no such range of meaning: It’s pure acceptance.
Humans only really learn from each other by storytelling. We didn’t evolve to memorize things. We evolved to hear each other’s stories and feel them in our heart. Your life is the most powerful story you can tell.
Stop trying to change your behavior; instead, rethink your beliefs.
Your first daily priority should be stillness, attention to what you really know and what you really feel.
When we run from our feelings, they follow us. Everywhere.
Here is the crux of the matter, the distilled essence, the only thing you need to remember: When considering whether to say yes or no, you must choose the response that feels like freedom. Period.
Make stuff up. Anyone who ever did something new or interesting was making it up as they went along.
This is the part of us that makes our brief, improbable little lives worth living: the ability to reach through our own isolation and find strength, and comfort, and warmth for and in each other. This is what human beings do. This is what we live for, the way horses live to run.
I don’t believe that there are no spiritual beings around us. I don’t know what to call them, I don’t know how they work. But I know they’re there.
Do whatever it takes to convey your essential self.
If you’re living completely on your own, break out of solitary confinement. Seek to understand others, and help them understand you.