“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that something deep inside us is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”
e.e. cummings
“The real question is whether you want to be happy regardless of what happens. The purpose of your life is to enjoy and learn from your experiences. You were not put on Earth to suffer. You’re not helping anybody by being miserable.”
– Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul
(and ps – this book, The Untethered Soul, is a little secret that adults have been keeping from you. It’s totally understandable, totally something you’ll relate to and pretty life changing. I mean, if it was good enough for Oprah…)
The human ego prefers anything, just about anything, to falling, or changing, or dying. The ego is that part of you that loves the status quo – even when it’s not working. It attaches to past and present and fears the future.
– Richard Rohr
I love this quote because it reminds us that the ego is the little part of you that doesn’t want to change.
Listen to the chatter of your little voice as an example of this. Your little voice/ego is always looking backwards and reliving the past or imagining the future. It imagines both good and bad outcomes for the future but even those imagined outcomes are based on your own past experiences. I mean, let’s be honest here. Unless you can actually see into the future, you have no idea what the future holds and yet our egos like to spend time there.
For some reason, the ego just cannot stand being in the present moment. It feels vulnerable. Unsafe. Unsure. It becomes threatened by who you really are…by your True Self.
So, once again, we come back to awareness and present moment awareness as ego squishing tools.
Take a minute. Heck, take 30 seconds. Oh hell, take ONE SECOND. Seriously, take just one second and be aware. Be aware of your breath. Be aware of your inhale and the moment between that and your exhale. In just that one second you start to quiet your ego. In just one second, you start to become more of your True Self. Breathe.
Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Just some Friday night silliness!
But really, don’t let anything distract you from donuts. If a donut is what it takes to keep you in the present moment, eat more donuts.
One kind word can change someone’s entire day (including your own).
Start your Monday off on the right foot by being kind to someone today.
Tell someone you like their outfit.
Ask them how their weekend was.
Simply smile as you pass them in the hallway.
Not only will they feel better, you will too.
You must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be.
– Marianne Williamson
If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It’s very important to be aware of them every time they come up.
– Deepak Chopra
It’s Monday. The start of a new week. It’s sorta like New Year’s Day! Resolve to make the most of it. Take a deep breath. Start over. Take a risk. Live big.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.
–Mark Twain
The Secret Handbook 4 Teens 