As I have mentioned before - I am reading the book Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach. I truly feel like this book is a big reason why I have been doing as well as I have been the last few weeks. The following are quotes that I highlighted in my book, because I could really relate to them or because they motivated me and made me think. All quotes are by Tara Brach unless noted otherwise.
I hope someone else can gain strength from these quotes.
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"If we are waiting only for our fear to end, we will not discover the pure and loving presence that unfolds as we surrender to the darkest of nights."
"When we are no longer trying to control fear and cling to life, our armor drops away and we experience a deep and pure freedom."
"When we stop tensing against life, we open to an awareness that is immeasurably large and suffused in love."
"Letting go into fear, accepting it, may seem counterintuitive. Yet because fear is an intrinsic part of being alive, resisting it means resisting life. The habit of avoidance seeps into every aspect of our life: it prevents us from loving well, from cherishing beauty within and around us, from being present in the moment."
"Being genuinely awake in the midst of fear requires the willingness to actively contact the sensations of fear."
"We are caught in the trance of fear when the emotion of fear becomes the core of our identity and constricts our capacity to live fully."
"Fear is the anticipation of future pain."
"As we learn to say yes to fear, we reconnect with the fullness of being - the heart and awareness that have been overshadowed by the contraction of fear."
"When the resistance is gone, the demons are gone."
"In bringing a clear and comprehensive awareness to our situation, we begin to accept our wanting self with compassion. This frees us to move forward, to break out of old patterns."
"It doesn't matter what is happening. What matters is how we are relating to our experience."
". . . aiming my sights on the future was an uncomfortable, out of balance way of being. When such periods were in full swing, I was too tense to appreciate the beauty around me, too preoccupied to listen inwardly or enjoy the people I love."
"[I have to] remind myself of the freedom and joy of remaining present, and of the suffering that arises from living in stories and illusions."
"Buddha taught that we suffer when we cling to or resist experience, when we want life different than it is."
"Pain in inevitable, suffering is optional."
"Only when we realize we can't hold on to anything can we begin to relax our efforts to control our experience."
"Mindfulness of the body leads to happiness in this life, and the fulness of spiritual awakening."
"When we stop comparing ourselves to some assumed standard of perfection, this very life we are living right now, can be tasted and explored, honored and appreciated fully. When we put down ideas of what life should be like, we are free to wholeheartedly to say yes to our life as it is."
"There is something wonderfully bold and liberating about saying yes to our entire imperfect and messy life."
"Nothing is wrong - whatever is happening is just real life."
"The unfaced and unfelt parts of our psyche are the source of all neurosis and suffering." Carl Jung
"Through the sacred art of pausing, we develop the capacity to stop hiding, to stop running away from our experience."
"Taking our hands off the controls and pausing is an opportunity to clearly see the wants and fears that are driving us."
"When we pause, we don't know what will happen next. But by disrupting our habitual behaviors, we open to the possibility of new and creative ways of responding to our wants and fears."
"There is only one world, the world pressing against you at this minute. There is only one minute in which you are alive, this minute here and now. The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle."
"The boundary to what we can accept, is the boundary to our freedom."