We witness other people’s storms from the shelter of our own perspectives. Let us be mindful that we don’t add the cold rain of judgement to their already soaked spirits.
~ Liz Newman
Image: Marcelo Amantino on Pexels
Tag: Suffering
Resisting What Is
Your mind has decided what you want to be happening, and what you don’t want to be happening, and that’s what you’re having a problem with.
The cause of suffering is that you have a way you want it to be… and now you suffer when it’s not that way, don’t you? You decided, “I don’t want it to be a certain way.” Then you suffer, when it is that way. I want it to be a certain way. It doesn’t be that way. You suffer……Because you have made up in your mind how you want the moment in front of you – and by the way, the moment that hasn’t happened yet and the one that already happened – how you want them to be. Because you did that with your mind, you are suffering.
Here’s how I define suffering. If you have to be doing anything about it to try and be OK, it means you’re suffering.
Michael Singer, from Every Day Gets Lighter When You Let Go of Yourself
Source: Karl Duffy on Mindfulbalance.org
Surviving Storms
And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.
~ Haruki Murakami, from Kafka on the Shore
Image: NoName_13 on Pixabay
Taking Care of Self
Go back and take care of yourself. Your body needs you, your feelings need you, your perceptions need you. Your suffering needs you to acknowledge it. Go home and be there for all these things.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh, from Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child
Image: Ralph’s_Fotos on Pixabay
Not Knowing What To Do With Feelings
Because we have never been taught any other way to meet our distress, we don’t realize how much our habits of avoidance or brooding are making things worse, turning momentary tiredness into exhaustion, momentary fear into chronic worry, and momentary sadness into chronic unhappiness and depression. So it isn’t our fault that we end up exhausted, anxious, or depressed. We have been given only certain tools to deal with things we don’t like: get rid of it, work harder, be better, be perfect—and if we fail to make things different, we too easily conclude that we are a failure as a person.
― Ed Halliwell, The Mindful Manifesto: How Doing Less and Noticing More Can Treat Illness, Relieve Stress and Help Us Cope with the 21st Century
Much of the insanity of the world comes from people not knowing what to do with their feelings.
― Ed Halliwell, Mindfulness Made Easy: Learn How to Be Present and Kind – to Yourself and Others
Image: Roberto Tumini on Unsplash
Shame
Shame keeps worthiness away by convincing us that owning our stories will lead to people thinking less of us. Shame is all about fear. We’re afraid that people won’t like us if they know the truth about who we are, where we come from, what we believe, how much we’re struggling.
~ Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection
When perfectionism is driving us, shame is riding shotgun, and fear is that annoying backseat driver.
~ Brene Brown
Curating Quietude 