August 2011
2 posts
“…at four o’clock in the morning, when the world is full of magic, things may be safely said that may not be uttered at any other time, so long as the person who listens believes in the same kind of magic as the person who speaks.” - Deerskin by Robin McKinley
“Loneliness can only be healed by understanding and love. Sometimes we think that if we have sexual relations with someone else, we’ll feel less lonely. But the truth is that sex doesn’t relieve the feeling of loneliness; it makes it worse. Sexuality should be accompanied by understanding and love. Without understanding and love, sex is empty. With understanding and love, sex can...
June 2011
3 posts
…all women are vulnerable to the same social voice lessons that dictate when and how we are allowed to use our voice and when our silence best serves those around us… There is a price for not heeding what we’re taught in our [social] voice lessons, but the price for silence is much higher. We lose our authenticity. We don’t feel good about half-truths, disingenuous...
“One fear or doubt planted in our mind can create an endless drama of events. Our word is like a spell, and humans use the word like black magicians, thoughtlessly putting spells on each other.” - Don Miguel Ruiz
We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. - Pema Chodeon
May 2011
2 posts
“It’s worth considering: where in your life do you feel tempted to shut down or not fully love, because you’ve experienced a rejection of sorts, in the past? Where in your life have you heard the message that something is not possible? And most importantly, how much do you want those experiences to influence your choices?”
“We are allowed to feel whatever we need to feel. If we lose someone, we’re allowed to hurt. If we hurt someone, we’re allowed to feel guilty. If we make a mistake, we’re allowed to feel regretful. Positive thinking can be a powerful tool for happiness, but it’s more detrimental than helpful if we use it to avoid dealing with life.
Pain is part of life, and we can’t avoid it by resisting...
April 2011
2 posts
It isn’t what happens to us that causes us to suffer; it’s what we say to ourselves about what happens. - Pema Chodron
Happiness is always standing by, ready to embrace us. We just have to be open and willing to receive it. - Jamie Hoang
March 2011
6 posts
The path to happiness is not determined by whether or not we made mistakes in the past. What paves the way to happiness is whether or not we turn our mistakes into catalysts for personal growth and illumination.
- Marianne Williamson
…there are only two possible landings for someone who embraces intimacy, and both are beautiful: The first possibility is that your beloved will love you back. Then you won’t land; you’ll just fall deeper into intimacy, together. The other possibility is that you’ll throw yourself forward, yell “Woo-hoo!,” and smash into rejection. Will it hurt? Indescribably....
Pursue your dreams not because you’re immune to heartbreak but because your real life, your whole life, is worth getting your heart broken a few thousand times.
- Martha Beck
There are no shortcuts on the path… The journey is the destination, and the time to embark on it is the ever-unfolding present.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn’t make any sense.
- Rumi
“…human nature is so constituted that insults sink deeper than kindnesses;...”
– Seneca
February 2011
4 posts
“We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.”
—T.S. Eliot
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
– J. R. R. Tolkien
“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often...”
– Mark Jenkins
“To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you...”
– Kofi Annan
January 2011
4 posts
“We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the...”
– Pema Chodron from When Things Fall Apart
“Creating and maintaining a healthy relationship is quite similar to creating and...”
– Bryn Collins
Spiritual Divorce
Seven Spiritual Laws to help you see divorce as a gain rather than a loss.
By Debbie Ford
A spiritual divorce is one in which we use our divorce to improve our lives and our experience becomes one of gain rather than loss. A spiritual divorce brings us back into the presence of our highest self and heals the split between our ego and our soul. When we use our divorces to heal our...
Excerpt From “Spiritual Divorce” by Debbie Ford
Things Aren’t Always What They Seem
In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. — Albert Camus, Summer (1954)
Divine guidance lays the foundation that gives us the support and understanding we need to begin practicing the Law of Acceptance. Acceptance is the essential ingredient that enables us to begin the healing process. We cannot...
December 2010
1 post
“Ultimately, the only enduring relationships will be between couples who consent...”
– We by Robert Johnson
October 2010
2 posts
“A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one’s heart, chaff...”
– Arabian Proverb
MMM: On Miscommunications. . . [Sonya Derian]
“Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.” - Lao Tzu It was an interesting lesson. I thought I was communicating one thing, meaning one thing. My friend heard me communicating something else, meaning something else. Both of us were right. There is communication, what one hears in the communication. And then there is interpretation. I have not...
September 2010
4 posts
Life’s missing white space - Leo Babauta [zen...
‘Space is the breath of art.’ ~Frank Lloyd Wright
I’m not a designer, but I’ve always been in love with the design concept of white space.
It’s the space in a design that isn’t filled with things — as you can tell from the design of Zen Habits and my other blog, mnmlist, it’s something I use (perhaps too) liberally.
But white space can be used in the design of our lives as well, not just the...
What is Forgiveness?
By Fred Luskin
I’ve been teaching forgiveness for more than a decade, and the simple definition of forgiveness that I work with now is that it’s the ability to make peace with the word “no.”
People have come to me with a whole host of problems, and the essence of all of them is: I didn’t get something I wanted. I got “no.” I wanted my partner to be faithful; they weren’t faithful. I got...
The 9 Skills Every Woman Should Master
by Christine Kane
There’s a popular Esquire Magazine article called “75 Skills Every Man Should Master.” There’s stuff about baseball, neckties, and other things that most of the extraordinary men in my life could care the least about.
It got me thinking about the happiest, coolest, most successful women I know. And how they would take the question of mastery...
“If you light a lamp for someone else it will also brighten your path.”
– Buddha
August 2010
6 posts
“Each of us, deep within, is inherently perfect, whole and complete, with the...”
– Lama Surya Das
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
– Confucius
Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you...
“…our moment-to-moment happiness is largely determined by our outlook. In fact,...”
– Dalai Lama
“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.”
– Pema Chodron
“We all have problems. The way we solve them is what makes us different.”
July 2010
9 posts
“Resentment is the poison you swallow hoping the other person will die.”
– Carrie Fisher
We are all good, loving souls who occasionally get...
A wise woman and her young disciple were walking down the street. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an angry man in a carriage drove haphazardly by the two, insensitively pushing the woman out of his way. She landed in a ditch filled with muddy water. The woman yelled after the man in the carriage, “May you have everything you want!” The disciple, surprised by the wise woman’s...
“Grant yourself a moment of peace, and you will understand how foolishly you have...”
– Chinese proverb
“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”
– Mother Teresa
“If her past were your past, her pain your pain, her level of consciousness your...”
– Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle
“Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions....”
“Everything can be a jumping off place for something new, if we are willing to...”
– Sonya Derian of omfreely.com
“We only get one life. Use it well. Stress less, embrace happiness and show your...”
– Tammy Strobel @ rowdykittens.com
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything....”
– Buddha
June 2010
3 posts
“Most of the shadows of life are caused by standing in our own sunshine.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
We stand in our own way more often than we realize.
When you obsess about the past instead of letting it go, you’re standing in your own sunshine. When you’re worry about the future instead of creating it well by focusing on the positive, you’re standing in your own sunshine. When you strain...
“…one of the most important lessons I learned is: cut people some slack....”
– Tammy Strobel
“If you think you could never do something … stop saying it. You just might...”
May 2010
21 posts
“Everything external eventually fades–and I don’t think that’s such a bleak...”
– Lori Deschene
“You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.”
– Buddha