Quotes for healing - the ones that take you DEEPER

The serenity prayer is fantastic. A little long for a mantra, but could be printed out and read each day
or when stress or anxiety comes up.

 

Great idea for a thread, Forest.

I change the quote in my signature from time to time. The current one quoted above, particularly speaks to me right now. I'm at the phase in my healing where I've identified some dysfunctional habitual ways of thinking and behaving that, while they once were useful defense mechanisms, now only serve to make me miserable. So I'm trying to catch myself engaging in these old negative habits, and attempting to replace them with thoughts and behaviors that lead to empowerment--making me strong instead of miserable.

For example, I have a work colleague right now who is very challenging. Instead of resorting to old habits of blaming myself for the problems and withdrawing into self-criticism, I'm trying to just feel my emotions that are triggered and let them pass through me. I remind myself to "jump off all stressful trains of thought", and then sink into the present moment, finding some joy and peace there. If I'm still feeling stressed, I do yoga (which includes deep breathing) or take or a walk. Much more empowering than my old habits.

I follow on Twitter a few entities that are a good source of quotes--Zen Moments and Sounds True.

But it's hard to get any better than the Serenity Prayer.

 

Great thread topic, Forest. Here's a quote that has been helping me lately. I can fall into an angry victim role all too easily so this one reminds me to be empowered.

 

"Pity me that the heart is slow to learn what the swift mind beholds at every turn."

Edna St. Vincent Millay, from Dr. Sarno's books.

 

Today it's hard to be happy because of the heat and humidity.
This has been like living in a Chicago jungle.

 

Walt, here's one just for you:
“MAN, n. An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earth and Canada.”
― Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Good to remember what it's like "back East" when it's hot and humid. Where I am, this morning there was frost.

 

Staying for the whole show

Someone on the forum recommended a man named Guy Finley. I listened to a YouTube video and he said something I loved so much. He was talking about how we resist what life throws at us when we don't like it (but we embrace the good things easily) and he said the problem is that we "don't stay for the whole show." In other words, a feeling we don't want comes up and we push it away instead of feeling it. We just walk out of the theatre, so to speak. If we stayed until the end, we could find release and resolution.

It's not really a quote, but I love the image so much. I'm working on embracing rather than denying.

 

Blake, I betcha that was Chickenbone! Guy Finley has been very helpful to her in her healing journey and I too have enjoyed his teachings. That's a great picture he paints about "the whole show".

Walt, cool temps will be coming your way soon. I feel for you. Our brief time back in Michigan reminded me of how humidity really cranks up the discomfort factor when it's hot out.

Njoy, it'll be frosting here soon enough. Thankfully, we will be in Arizona by the time Old Man Winter is in full swing. Happy me.

 

Guy Finley, huh? Sounds like wisdom to me.

North Star, I'm happy you are happy.

 

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Jiddu Krishnamurti

 

The moment you have hatred, even with good reason, that hatred will hurt you before it hurts anyone else.

 

Forgiveness does not change the past, but it makes the future a whole lot better.

 

Great thread Forest!

I like:

Don’t wait for a light to appear at the end of the tunnel, stride down there and light the bloody thing yourself.

And

Get off your cross, and use the wood to build a bridge and get over it.

 

And in the end, the Love you take, is equal to the Love you make.
The Beatles

 

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
Rumi

 

OK, angelic, you really got me by quoting the Beatles. Love that one.

And there is no more simple wisdom than "Let it Be"

 

"Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional." Author Unknown