I didn't fight or shame my thoughts, I questioned them, and they stopped shaming me.
Interpretation
Questioning negative thoughts can lead to self-acceptance and reduced shame.
This quote emphasizes the importance of self-inquiry and mindfulness in managing negative thoughts. Rather than engaging in a battle with harmful beliefs or allowing them to control emotions, the speaker suggests that examining and questioning these thoughts can lead to greater awareness and ultimately relieve the shame associated with them. This process fosters a more compassionate relationship with oneself and encourages emotional balance.
In practice
In a workshop on mental health, this quote can inspire participants to rethink their inner dialogue.
When you stay present with your children, that’s where abundance is. And when you stay out of their business, that’s where everything you deserve in life is. When you’re in presence, there’s no story, and you are abundance. And you come to trust that space so often that you just eventually hang out as that, because there is nothing that can move you out of it, not even a perceived child or a perceived anything.
It is easy to be swept away by some overwhelming feeling, so it's helpful to remember that any stressful feeling is like a compassionate alarm clock that says, "You're caught in the dream."
We don't attach to people or to things; we attach to uninvestigated concepts that we believe to be true in the moment.
An unquestioned mind is the world of suffering.
Hurt feelings or discomfort of any kind cannot be cause by another person. No one outside me can hurt me. That’s not a possibility. It’s only when I believe a stressful thought that I get hurt. And I’m the one who’s hurting me by believing what I think. This is very good news, because it means that I don’t have to get someone else to stop hurting me. I’m the one who can stop hurting me. It’s within my power.
I am a lover of what is, not because I'm a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality.
Life is short. Do whatever you can to help people - not for status, but because the 95-year-old you will be proud if you did help people and disappointed if you didn't.
It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.
Alas, we think of ourselves as unique entities-minds unlike any others-and thus we often reject the lessons that the emotional experience of others has to teach us.
Other men may preach the gospel better than I, but no man can preach a better gospel.
It is no weakness for the wisest man to learn when he is wrong.
Become more and more innocent, less knowledgeable and more childlike. Take life as fun - because that's precisely what it is!
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