As you recognize that you already own the wholeness you seek, and no one outside you can give you more than you already are, dysfunctional situations will evaporate like bad dreams exposed to the morning sun.
Alan CohenRead
When you protect yourself from pain, be sure you do not protect yourself from love.
Interpretation
Avoiding pain may lead to missing out on love.
This quote emphasizes the balance between self-protection and vulnerability. While it is natural to want to shield oneself from emotional pain, doing so can also prevent the experience of deep love and connection, which is essential for a fulfilling life. It suggests that one must be willing to face potential pain in order to fully embrace the beauty of loving relationships.
In practice
During a relationship seminar, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of openness.
As you recognize that you already own the wholeness you seek, and no one outside you can give you more than you already are, dysfunctional situations will evaporate like bad dreams exposed to the morning sun.
Communication is an offering. When you tell someone your truth, you must release your expectation of what the other person should do with it. They may thank you profusely, love you forever, argue with you, or ignore you. It doesn't matter. Of course we hope the gift will be received with appreciation and thanks. But if it isn't we must not dictate. We've done our part, and we must trust the universe to do the rest.
When you learn to say yes to yourself, you will be able to say no to others, with love.
We attain freedom as we let go of whatever does not reflect our magnificence. A bird cannot fly high or far with a stone tied to its back. But release the impediment, and we are free to soar to unprecedented heights.
You can be helping many people, but if you are not helping yourself, you have missed the one person you were born to heal.
Enlightenment does not ask you to be perfect; it simply asks you to find perfection right where you stand.
I have my golden retriever now, Pontiac. He's a career-change guide dog from Guide Dogs for the Blind.
For millions of Americans who happen to be black or brown, that core bond of trust with the government that governs closest to you, is too often broken.
I will never have a photograph of her to carry around in my pocket. I will never have a letter in her handwriting, or a scrap-book of everything we've done. I will never share an apartment with her in the city. I will never know if we are listening to the same song at the same time. We will not grow old together. I will not be the person she calls when she's in trouble. She will not be the person I call when I have stories to tell. I will never be able to keep anything she's given to me.
All of my peers died of AIDS, and I have no one to celebrate my past or my journey, or to help me pass down stories to the next generation. We lost an entire generation of storytellers with HIV.
Having a loving relationship with our spouse or with our children is what leads to the long-term happiness we all seek.
I've been accused of being too flexible, too willing to mold myself to men, and that's something I'm constantly working on.
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