You know, I come across people who actually seem to boast of impatience or, at the very least, vigorously justify it. Now that I think about it, they weren't very peaceful sorts at all....Inner peace is letting go of impatience.
~~~
Friday, June 24, 2011
Inner peace
Well, this is certainly succinct:
~~~
~~~
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Recongizing beauty
Here's something a Center participant sent to me. Very true, I would say:
There's so much beauty around you--and not just where one conventionally would look for beauty. In a flower, of course it's there supremely, but even in places you would not be looking for it.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Real equanimity, real peace
It's amazing, really, how ferociously people will often defend the "right" to have enemies, to believe that is is somehow right to see others as enemies. Here's another way:
If there is love, there is hope to have real families, real brotherhood, real equanimity, real peace. If the love within your mind is lost, if you continue to see other beings as enemies, then no matter how much knowledge or education you have, no matter how much material progress is made, only suffering and confusion will ensue.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Sad and often true
This:
People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Valuing the darkness
Oh, I really, really like this:
Well, I've found it now and it will continue, I'm sure, to be a powerful springboard for reflection.
~~~
Odd that I had not come across it before but I haven't. It's so wonderful that I would have thought it would be picked up more often in a variety of books and websites on the spiritual life.“Enlightenment is not imagining figures of light but making the darkness conscious.”
Well, I've found it now and it will continue, I'm sure, to be a powerful springboard for reflection.
~~~
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Acceptance
This beautifully expresses timeless meditative principles:
When we see ourselves in a situation which must be endured and gone through, it is best to meet it with firmness, and accommodate everything to it in the best way practicable. This lessens the evil, while fretting and fuming only increase your own torments.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Friday, June 17, 2011
A willingness to be still
I would say that there is a difference between a receptive sort of stillness and the "couch potato" kind:
Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Over-concern with "getting it right"
The following is from an article about meditation entitled "Meditation Is Not What You Think" by Ed and Deb Shapiro.
~~~
Meditation invites us to stop, just stop, breathe and be. Just as with a musician playing or an artist painting, when we stop trying to make it happen something occurs, like the radiant sun that suddenly emerges in a cloudy sky. But because we try so hard, we identify more with the technique instead of allowing the meditation to reveal itself.Many people get frustrated with meditation because they're striving for some sort of idealized technique that will produce a certain feeling. I like the encourage simply to stop, to breathe and to be.
~~~
Monday, June 13, 2011
Steps
Truly, I tell you, this is the only way to begin and then to maintain a meditative practice:
By the way, if you've never read The Little Prince, I highly recommend it. Even though it looks like a book for children, it really is for grown-ups.
~~~
What saves a person is to take a step. Then another step.
By the way, if you've never read The Little Prince, I highly recommend it. Even though it looks like a book for children, it really is for grown-ups.
~~~
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Something about perception
Good old Heisenberg:
~~~
Yup. As I often find myself saying in the Foundations class, "Notice the non-objectivity of perception."What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
~~~
Saturday, June 11, 2011
The effect we have on others
Quite some time ago, someone I respect very much mentioned how important it is that people take at least some responsibility for how they come across. I've never forgotten it. Below is a passage from the Daily Om website that talks about just that:
~~~
Most people rarely give thought to the effect they have had or will have on others. When we take a few moments to contemplate how our individual modes of being affect the people we spend time with each day, we come one step closer to seeing ourselves through the eyes of others. By asking ourselves whether those we encounter walk away feeling appreciated, respected, and liked, we can heighten our awareness of the effect we ultimately have. Something as simple as a smile given freely can temporarily brighten a person’s entire world... And small gestures of kindness can even prove to those embittered by the world that goodness still exists.The complete article is right here.
~~~
Friday, June 10, 2011
Authentic silence
Here is one of the sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers from early Christian monasticism. What I really like about this one is that it reveals the futility of trying to make interior progress by slavishly following rules or by interpreting instructions too literally. The intention of the heart matters much more than overt ways of evaluating how we are advancing:
A person may seem to be silent, but if his heart is condemning others, he is babbling ceaselessly. But there may be another who talks from morning till night and yet he is truly silent, that is, he says nothing that is not profitable.
-- Abba Pimen
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
The truly valuable gift
This story has been around for a while in various versions. Stories on this overall theme go all the way back to the Desert Fathers and Mothers of early Christian monasticism and no doubt exist in other wisdom traditions as well.
Here's the version I found today and it really spoke to me:
Here's the version I found today and it really spoke to me:
A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman."I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone.
-- Author Unknown
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Urgent and vital
Well! I certainly agree with this:
~~~
Meditation, of course, is the most effective way of resting the mind. My own teacher used to say that frequently: "Rest the mind; rest the mind." If we are straining in any way when we meditated, we truly aren't doing it correctly.Sometimes the most urgent and vital thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest.
~~~
Monday, June 06, 2011
Saturday, June 04, 2011
More about the "now"
This is well spoken:
~~~
Schweitzer has long been one of my personal heroes. If you don't know much about him, I really recommend that you read up on this life and work.Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now - always.
~~~
Friday, June 03, 2011
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Blogging interruption
I'll be back soon, folks. I just have a lot going on right now and am a bit tired out. I'll be back Friday at the latest.
Blessings to all!
~~~
Wednesday life form blogging
Gorgeous chameleon
I'm sorry to say that I lost track of where I found this photo.
~~~
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Cultivating gratitude
I've just found a website entitled Thx Thx Thx. It's a blog by someone who posts hand written thank you notes - not necessarily to people but also to things and concepts.
And here's another one:
Here's a sample:
And here's another one:
There are wonderful mindfulness exercises when you think about it.
~~~
Monday, May 30, 2011
Memorial Day, 2011
Henri Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial
"We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war. There is no task that is more important or closer to my heart."
-- Albert Einstein
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Wisdom and awareness
There's a lot here, people:
Let is make a pledge to ourselves that we will do what is necessary to help ourselves be teachable.
~~~
I especially like this part: "Everything teaches. Not everyone learns."Life offers its wisdom generously. Everything teaches. Not everyone learns. Life asks of us the same thing we have been asked in every class: "Stay awake." "Pay attention." But paying attention is no simple matter. It requires us not to be distracted by expectations, past experiences, labels, and masks. It asks that we not jump to early conclusions and that we remain open to surprise.
Let is make a pledge to ourselves that we will do what is necessary to help ourselves be teachable.
~~~
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
A wonderful way to help
I've been asked to call your attention to a program known as The Fresh Air Fund. Here's something about it:
And click here to donate:
THE FRESH AIR FUND, an independent, not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. Nearly 10,000 New York City children enjoy free Fresh Air Fund programs annually. In 2010, close to 5,000 children visited volunteer host families in suburbs and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada. 3,000 children also attended five Fresh Air camps on a 2,300-acre site in Fishkill, New York. The Fund’s year-round camping program serves an additional 2,000 young people each year.
And here's a video that will tell you more:
And click here to donate:
~~~
Scent as a meditative support
A friend of mine, Vivienne, has published a very interesting interactive book called Meditating with Aromatics.
Here's part of what she says about it on her blog:
Over the last year I have published a number of meditations that use fragrance as a starting point and the intention has been to write an entire book of them. After much thought I decided that I would start by making the meditations available during the process of writing the book and publishing it in stages.
There’s a few good reasons for this. The first is that it gives me a greater incentive to write them. The second is subtler. Making a book available during its creation rather than when it is a finished product would normally be the very last thing I’d ever do but this is different.
It’s different because I want the readers to be involved in the creation. How often have you read a book and wished to ask the writer to do something different? Ask for instructions to be clearer or more detailed? Or make a personal request? This time you can.
Meditating with Aromatics is a work in progress that you can help shape as it is written. You can request that I write a meditation for a fragrant substance that has special power for you. You can suggest scents I may not have considered. You can try them out and let me know what would work better for you.
Isn't that really interesting? I have ordered a paper copy (very low cost) but she's made it available for a free download as well. Do click through and check it out.
~~~
Monday, May 23, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Something about love
I do mean the real thing, of course. Real love - not play love:
The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.
-- Thomas Merton
Friday, May 20, 2011
What is spirituality, anyway?
This is something to ponder:
Spirituality exists wherever we struggle with the issue of how our lives fit into the greater cosmic scheme of things. This is true even when our questions never give way to specific answers or give rise to specific practices such as prayer or meditation. We encounter spiritual issues every time we wonder where the universe comes from, why we are here, or what happens when we die. We also become spiritual when we become moved by values such as beauty, love, or creativity that seem to reveal a meaning or power beyond our visible world. An idea or practice is "spiritual" when it reveals our personal desire to establish a felt-relationship with the deepest meanings or powers governing life.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Benefits of being wrong
It's a catchy title:
Why being wrong is good for you
And it won't take you long to read it.
Here's a little excerpt:
~~~
Why being wrong is good for you
And it won't take you long to read it.
Here's a little excerpt:
We are wrong about what it means to be wrong. Far from being a sign of intellectual inferiority, the capacity to err is crucial to human cognition. Far from being a moral flaw, it is inextricable from some of our most humane and honorable qualities: empathy, optimism, imagination, conviction and courage. And far from being a mark of indifference or intolerance, wrongness is a vital part of how we learn and change. Thanks to error, we can revise our understanding of ourselves and amend our ideas about the world.There's also a video of the author, Kathryn Schulz, giving a TED talk about this.
~~~
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The art of acceptance
It is very important to remember that acceptance does not necessarily mean approval. I think that confusion often is what trips people up when they're trying to learn how to accept what is. We can also still work to change something. It just that right this very second, we need to be able to accept what actually is the case in order to free up our energy to make wise choices about the matter.
I started to discover the meaning of happiness when I started to discover--and practice--the art of acceptance. When I started to accept life for what it was and I started to accept whatever situation I was in as the way things were, I started to see that my happiness depended on my own attitude. When I started focusing on getting the most out of my life the way it was rather than trying to turn it into what I thought it should be, I started to realize that I was, indeed, becoming a much happier person.
-- Tom Walsh
Monday, May 16, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
Recent posting difficulties
Dear friends,
The Blogger program has been down the past couple of days and I have been unable to put up any new posts. It's now functioning again but, at the moment, I'm hard at work on organizing the Center's garage sale items. The garage sale is scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday) and so that will require all my attention as well.
I'll probably be back to posting on Sunday.
Sincere apologies for any mindfulness inconvenience!
Blessings to all,
Ellie
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
The practicalities of meditation
Such a sensible way of looking at things, don't you think?Some people think that meditation takes time away from physical accomplishment. Taken to extremes, of course, that's true. Most people, however, find that meditation creates more time than it takes.
~~~
Sunday, May 08, 2011
In honor of Mother's Day
I would assert that we can all - man and woman alike - become this mother:
Let us ponder these things today.
~~~
Remember that in the meditative tradition, we are taught to have the kind of compassion for all beings that a mother has for her only child. We are also taught to regard all beings as mother.Becoming a mother makes you the mother of all children. From now on each wounded, abandoned, frightened child is yours. You live in the suffering mothers of every race and creed and weep with them. You long to comfort all who are desolate.
Let us ponder these things today.
~~~
Friday, May 06, 2011
Learning to "sit down quietly"
Here's part of why meditation contributes to well being. Most of us don't really know how to "sit down quietly" for very long, at least, and meditation teaches us just that:
Happiness is a butterfly which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
Thursday, May 05, 2011
More on silence
Well, this is very ancient, isn't it? Who knows? Perhaps it was out of the depths of silence that he came up with his famous theorem:
Learn silence. With the quiet serenity of a meditative mind, listen, absorb, transcribe, and transform.
-- Pythagoras
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Distinctions
Imagine how different the world might well be if we all took this one to heart:
In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.
-- The historic Buddha
Monday, May 02, 2011
Walking meditation
The best description yet:
"Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet."
-- Thich Nhat Hanh
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Care provider support and mindfulness
I just found a pdf file of a paper written by two army officers about meditation and relilence. There's a lot of good stuff there. For now, let me offer these snippets:
~~~
Mindfulness is a way of being, a way of seeing, a way of knowing. One definition describes mindfulness as a way of being in which one is highly aware and focused on the reality of the present moment, accepting and acknowledging it, without getting caught up in the thoughts that are about the situation or emotional reactions to the situation.The full title of the paper is "The Use of Meditation and Mindfulness Practices to Support Military Care Providers: A Prospectus". You might like to go over and take a look.
...
The primary purpose of meditation is to cultivate a non-judgmental awareness of body and mind, and secondarily to learn how to witness events and experiences on a moment-to-moment basis. Meditation practices can also help to foster insights into one’s habitual and reactive patterns of perceiving and behaving, thus facilitating change of these patterns.
~~~
Friday, April 29, 2011
A meditative practice to help your marriage
In honor of the royal wedding this morning, I'd like to suggest an article entitled "How to Use Mindfulness Meditation to Improve your Marriage" by Pamela Lipe over on the GoodTherapy.org site.
Here's an excerpt:
~~~
Here's an excerpt:
After you have settled into your usual pattern of breathing and being in the present, meditate on the strengths or positive characteristics that you received from your parents or other loving caregivers. I received love and kindness from both my parents. From my father, I inherited thoughtfulness and integrity while my mother passed on gentleness and nurturing.You might like to click through and read the whole article. I think it's really quite inspiring and I'm going to incorporate this exercise in my work with couples.
Next, pick one of these traits as a focal point. Here I want to focus on just one of these traits, to feel that quality as my own. I selected kindness. I focused on this word and noticed what I felt in my body. My heart felt warmer and I observed less tension in my chest and shoulders. Of course, as is normal, I was plagued by examples of when I was not kind. In the tradition of mindfulness meditation, I noticed the intrusive thoughts and let them move past my awareness so I could return to reflecting on kindness emanating from my heart. Then I pictured my spouse while maintaining a focus on that positive characteristic that I received from my parents, kindness.
At this point, I invite you to ask yourself the following questions. If this characteristic were to be present in your relationships towards your spouse, what would it look like? What would you be doing? How would you treat your spouse? How would it feel?
Settle on one behavior or action. Picture yourself doing this action for your partner. See the details. Notice how it feels to give this part of yourself to your partner.
~~~
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Mindfulness
Now, this is a truly wonderful definition:
Mindfulness means
paying attention
in a particular way;
on purpose,
in the present moment,
and nonjudgmentally.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Even more benefits from meditation
This news has really been making the rounds just lately:
~~~
New research suggests that mindfulness meditation can help relieve pain and improve memory by regulating a brain wave known as the alpha rhythm, which “turns down the volume” on distractions.You can read the whole article right here.
In a small study, researchers found that those participants using meditation were better able to modulate the waves — when they were told where to direct their attention — after they finished an eight-week course, compared to a control group that did no meditation.
~~~
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Letting go of externals
One of my facebook friends noted this morning that today is the birthday of Marcus Aurelius, the great emperor-philosopher of Rome during the second century BCE. Here are a few quotations that are wonderfully consistent with meditative principles:
How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.
...
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your opinion of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
...
The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it.
...
We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Meditation and spring
This morning I found a little ezine article that offers thirty ways of letting spring-time opportunities help us with mindfulness practice. Here are a few that particularly appeal to me:
- have a picnic by yourself
- look at the many different shades of green that emerge from the trees
- practice yoga outdoors
- go outdoors and listen to the sounds of the birds
- don't make any plans for the day and have a retreat at home, making each action and interaction a meditation
And there are more.
~~~
- have a picnic by yourself
- look at the many different shades of green that emerge from the trees
- practice yoga outdoors
- go outdoors and listen to the sounds of the birds
- don't make any plans for the day and have a retreat at home, making each action and interaction a meditation
And there are more.
~~~
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Meditation and life
Today I went looking for a really life affirming article about meditation and I found the following passages from a piece entitled, "Meditation - Yes to life":
~~~
Normally we judge and evaluate our behavior and ourselves, rather than simply watch without judgment and evaluation. Since an early age we have been taught to judge ourselves, so that now it is even easier not to judge others than ourselves.May today be a day of celebrating new life, refreshed life, restored life for you.
A non-judgmental attitude means to learn to love even the imperfect and incomplete within ourselves. It means to include and embrace all that which we do not accept in ourselves in the light of awareness. A non-judgmental attitude means to say yes even to that which we say no to in ourselves. A question that we can ask ourselves in different situations is if we say no, if we judge that which arises in our consciousness, or if we simply can be aware and watch without judging and evaluating.
...
There are basically two different ways to relate to life. The first way is to say no to life and the other way is to say yes to life. The first way means to act out of our ego, from our separate I. The other way means to act from our inner being, from our authentic self, from the inner source of love and truth, from the silence and emptiness within us, from the inner capacity to surrender to life.
~~~
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Habits for balance
Some time ago (several years, probably) I came across a website entitled Zen Habits and I'm rediscovering it today.
One post that caught my attention is called "5 Essential Zen Habits for Balanced Living" and here's a simple list of the habits:
~~~
One post that caught my attention is called "5 Essential Zen Habits for Balanced Living" and here's a simple list of the habits:
1. Awareness and mindfulnessEach habit is elaborated upon in the original article and so I do recommend that you click through and take a look.
2. Appreciation of your body
3. Creativity
4. Patience
5. Simplicity
~~~
Friday, April 22, 2011
In honor of Good Friday:
Do listen. Whatever your belief system, this is a wonderfully meditative chant.
~~~
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Very simple. To the point.
Here's a Pema Chödrön quotation I found today that really sums things up very nicely:
So, it's never one or the other.
~~~
We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves.
So, it's never one or the other.
~~~
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Something encouraging
You know, what's seen cannot be unseen; what's known cannot be not known. That's really the principle behind this wonderful insight:
What's encouraging about meditation is that even if we shut down, we can no longer shut down in ignorance. We see very clearly that we're closing off. That in itself begins to illuminate the darkness of ignorance.
-- Pema Chödrön
Monday, April 18, 2011
It's the journey, folks:
When we make music we don't do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing, we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.
-- Alan Watts
Sunday, April 17, 2011
The four reliances
This is very helpful stuff for all meditators:
Found it here.First, rely on the spirit and meaning of the teachings, not on the words;
Second, rely on the teachings, not on the personality of the teacher;
Third, rely on real wisdom, not superficial interpretation;
And fourth, rely on the essence of your pure Wisdom Mind, not on judgmental perceptions.
-- Traditional teaching
~~~
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Simple. Deeply true.
Just spend some time with this. Let it really sink in:
Health, contentment and trust
Are your greatest possessions,
And freedom your greatest joy.
Look within.
Be still.
-- The historic Buddha
Friday, April 15, 2011
The inner concert
This is a wonderful metaphor, actually - this notion of getting quiet for the concert:
We are sick with fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas. Meditation is therefore the art of suspending verbal and symbolic thinking for a time, somewhat as a courteous audience will stop talking when a concert is about to begin.
-- Alan Watts
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Interesting headline
The following caught my attention this morning:
You may not think this has an immediate relationship with the meditative process but I would assert that it does. Having compassion for ourselves and others is the big point, of course. Also, recognizing impermanence as a core meditative principle is definitely part of not letting our childhood take us hostage.
It's a short article and so I recommend that you click through and have a look.
~~~
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Love
Something to ponder. Something to embrace. Something to sustain us and inspire us and dedicate our lives to:
In this world
Hate never yet dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate.
This is the law,
Ancient and inexhaustible.
-- the historic Buddha
Monday, April 11, 2011
Being a mountain
Something to ponder:
The mountain remains unmoved at seeming defeat by the mist.
-- Tagore
Sunday, April 10, 2011
More about the present moment
Definitely worth pondering:
We can smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available. We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive.
-- Thich Nhat Hanh from Peace is Every Step
Also, I would say that we are very good at sacrificing ten years for a diploma but we are very reluctant to meditate consistently for ten years even though we know that doing so will support us in great happiness.
Odd, when you think about it.
~~~
Friday, April 08, 2011
This is powerfully true:
Happiness, not in another place but this place...not for another hour, but this hour.
-- Walt Whitman
You know, if you're in need about perspective in life, you could certainly do worse than to spend a lot of time with Walt Whitman - I mean immerse yourself in his poetry and essays. His observer consciousness was unsurpassed, I would say.
~~~
Thursday, April 07, 2011
You know, I think there's something to this:
"Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known."
-- A.A. Milne
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Well! I certainly agree with this:
You don't have to be some sort of freak to meditate.
-- John Lennon
Monday, April 04, 2011
Why meditate?
Well, this pretty much sums things up, doesn't it?
Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.
-- The historic Buddha
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Saturday, April 02, 2011
Life
You know, there's actually something to this:
Life is like a blanket too short. You pull it up and your toes rebel, you yank it down and shivers meander about your shoulder; but cheerful folks manage to draw their knees up and pass a very comfortable night.
To extend the illustration here, meditation helps us cultivate flexible knees!
~~~
Friday, April 01, 2011
Are you a "people pleaser"?
Then give this some thought:
Trying to change ourselves in order to please others - so that we can feel temporarily whole for having won their approval - is like cutting a flower into pieces so that it will fit into a vase.
- Guy Finley
That's a very evocative image isn't it? The damnable thing is that we usually don't actually please people at all with this approach. Learning to be authentically ourselves - and then approaching the challenges of our lives with reasonable skillfulness - is truly the way to go.
~~~
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