The gift of deciding to face your mortality without turning away or flinching is the gift of recognizing that because you will die, you must live now. Whether you flounder or flourish is always in your hands – you are the single biggest influence in your life.
Yet when I’d let some man use me, she’d often say, “He’s just chipping away at your spirit. One day I hope he chips deep enough for you to see who you really are – someone who deserves to be happy.
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” – Epictetus.
We all get the opportunity to feel wonder every day, but we’ve been lulled into numbness. Have you ever driven home from work, opened your front door, and asked yourself how you got there? I know for sure that I don’t want to live a shut-down life – desensitized to feeling and seeing. I want every day to be a fresh start on expanding what is possible. On experiencing joy on every level.
Here’s how I see your weight – it is your smoke detector. And we’re all burning up the best part of our lives.
Harbam means that you have unique gifts. Focus on the gifts. Don’t focus on the weaknesses, because there are other people who will complement your weaknesses, and you will complement theirs. You recognize the gift when you’re expressing yourself in that unique way, giving out your gifts, and you lose track of time.
One of my greatest lessons has been to fully understand that what looks like a dark patch in the quest for success is the universe pointing you in a new direction.
Books, for me, used to be a way to escape. I now consider reading a good book a sacred indulgence, a chance to be any place I choose. It is my absolute favorite way to spend time. What I know for sure is that reading opens you up.
I go forth alone, and stand as ten thousand,” Maya Angelou.
But there’s a thin line between pride and ego.
Hurtful words send the message – both to ourselves and to those with whom we share them – that we can’t be trusted. If someone is willing to tear down one “friend,” why wouldn’t she be willing to disparage another? Gossip means we haven’t emboldened ourselves to talk directly to the people we take issue with, so we belittle them. Playwright Jules Feiffer calls it committing little murders: Gossip is an assassination attempt by a coward.
Become the change you want to see – those are words I live by. Instead of belittling, uplift. Instead of demolishing, rebuild. Instead of misleading, light the way so that all of us can stand on higher ground.
The key to any relationship is communication. And I’ve always thought that communication is like a dance. One person takes a step forward, the other takes a step back. Even a single misstep can land both people on the floor in a tangle of confusion.
If you are in a place where you’re more powerful than the people around you, listen as much as you talk. And if you’re less powerful, talk as much as you listen, Gloria Steinem.
Some Me of Beauty.
And since your brainstem can’t tell time, or know that many years have passed, it activates the stress response and you have a full-blown threat response. You feel and act as if you are under attack. Your brainstem can’t say, ‘Hey, don’t get so stirred up, Korea was thirty years ago. That sound was simply a motorcycle backfiring.
The experiences in the first years of life are disproportionately powerful in shaping how your brain organizes.
We need to understand that victims of trauma are more prone to all forms of addiction because their baseline of stress is different.
So I’m not crazy?” “No. Your brain is doing exactly what you would expect it to do considering what you lived through.
The acorn contains the oak.