Posts tagged with “wisdom”
When Youâre Unhappy and Want Things to Change
âSometimes even to live is an act of courage.â ~Seneca
This is the first time I am admitting it: I was bullied in school.
I was thirteen years old at the time, and it went on for the one year that I lived in Dorm 11. I never acknowledged it because I felt bullying was too small a misfortune to complain about.
But now when I think back to it, I can remember exactly how the dormitory looked. I remember the view from the windows, the corridor in front of my dorm. I remember the faces of the other kids, …
How To Make Peace With Your Noisy Mindâ7 Tips From An Ex-Monk
âLeave your front door and your back door open. Let thoughts come and go. Just don’t serve them tea.â ~Shunryu Suzuki
There are few things more exasperating in life than having a noisy chatterbox in residence between your earsâa busy mind that never stops and wonât leave you in peace for a moment.
You are sitting by the pool on your long-awaited vacation.
The weather is perfect. Your diary is clear. You settle down on your deckchair with an ice-cold drink and your favorite book.
Everything is perfectâwell, almost everything.
The message âon vacationâ clearly hasnât got through to the …
How the Past and the Future Can Rob You of the Present
âRemember then: there is only one time that is important and it is now! The present moment is the only time when we have any power.â ~Tolstoy
Stop for a second and tell me: What were you thinking about just now? Chances are very good that you were thinking about something either in the past or in the future.
Of course, some of that thinking is necessary. For instance, we think about what we need to get at the store to make dinner tonight, or what we saw on the news yesterday to consider where we stand and what to …
Why an Internal Focus is The Solution to All of Your Problems
âThe moment you take personal responsibility for everything in your life is the moment you can change anything in your life.â ~Hal Elrod
Iâm an introspective person, and at this point in my life donât have any problems with taking personal responsibility. When I share my insights or understanding of situations I have been in, people often say, âMarlena, why are you so hard on yourself? What about the people that have wronged and harmed you? Why do you never mention them?â
For most of my life, I was trapped in a victim mindset, which meant that I focused …
You Are Not “Too Much” to Be Loved
âIf you always feel like youâre too much or too little, maybe youâre adding yourself to the wrong recipe.â â ~Sophia Joan Short
There is an art to shrinking yourself.
As a young girl, I was painfully earnest. I hadnât learned the craft of nonchalance that was as much a requirement for being liked as name-brand clothes and Livestrong wristbands. One day, as I chattered excitedly on the school bus home, my seat-mate scolded me: âHailey. Calm down. Youâre so annoying.â
This is how I learned that my enthusiasm made me unlikable.
At home, short tempers led to angry arguments…
Why I Was Desperate to Be With an Unavailable Man
âIf you donât love yourself, youâll always be chasing after people who donât love you either.â ~Mandy Hale
In January, a couple of years ago, I had been declared unfit for work, suffering from anxiety and mental exhaustion. For too long, I had not listened to my body and soul complaining about all the heavy burdens I had been carrying.
Out walking at this time, the bitter cold and relentless rain felt like a blessing to me, grateful to at least feel something. It was on one of these walks that I first bumped into an old school friend, hearing …
When You Want to Make Progress Fast and Feel Impatient
âTortoise was over the line. After that, Hare always reminded himself, âDon’t brag about your lightning pace, for Slow and Steady won the race!ââ ~The Tortoise and the Hare (Aesop’s Fables)
I was sitting in an introduction to calligraphy workshop when a fellow student asked the instructor, âWhat do I need to become a professional Calligrapher, what would it take?â
We were all on the edge of our seats with that one. It was as if we were about to learn the secret ingredient to Grandmaâs cookies.
The answer, to our surprise, was pen and paper.
âThe materials are no …
How I Found the Gift in My Pain and Let Go of Resentment
âChange is inevitable, growth is intentional.â ~Glenda Cloud
How much time slips by when youâre living in the pain of resentment? Do you ever question if your bitterness has held you back from living your true destiny? Is blaming everyone else sabotaging your life and future?
Itâs only now that I can admit to the years I wasted pointing the finger at everyone else. It was easier for me to say it was their fault than accept responsibility for my own decisions. For me, attaining perfection was validation of my success. If it wasnât achievable, then it was obviously …
How Yoga Gave Me the Courage to Stop People-Pleasing
âYoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.â Â ~The Bhagavad Gita
Growing up, I couldnât have been further from my âself.â Early childhood experiences taught me to focus all of my energy externally. To put everyone around me first and to be insatiably attentive to their needs. This kind of thinking instills you with an incredibly low sense of self-worth, disconnects you from your own feelings and desires, and ultimately leaves your happiness pinned to other people.
When you have low self-worth, you mostly want to contract away from the world like a turtle. …
Though I run this site, it is not mine. It's ours. It's not about me. It's about us. Your stories and your wisdom are just as meaningful as mine.