Archives · MoveMe Quotes

The Dalai Lama on Patience and How Maintaining Emotional Balance is a Sign Of Strength

“Many people think that patience is a sign of weakness. I think this is a mistake. It is anger that is a sign of weakness, whereas patience is a sign of strength.”
The Dalai Lama

Beyond the Quote (279/365)

Patience is a sign of a strong, well controlled inner emotional climate. A climate that can be maintained independently of what’s happening on the outside. A climate that can be controlled, manipulated, and adjusted only by the person themself. A climate that nobody else can control, manipulate, or adjust even if they wanted or tried to. It is a sign of strength, self-understanding, and balance. But how to get there?

“Contentment had been there for the grasping, if only I had recognized it. Probably it’s there for you. The elders would tell you to grab it while you can, not agitate for something better. They don’t have time for delusions, including the delusion that you have time. They’re too busy loving like there’s no tomorrow, because for any of us, there might not be.”
John Leland, Happiness is a Choice You Make (Page 85)

Beyond the Quote (278/365)

Contentment is here. It’s right here for you and I to grasp. Of this I am sure. It is not a matter of whether it’s there or not for you, but a matter of whether or not you can see it. Whether or not you can recognize it. Whether or not you even know what you’re looking for or how to grasp it.

3 False Solutions That Aren't Helping You Solve Your Problems—They're Just Making Them Worse

Excerpt: What holds us back isn’t our problems—we can overcome those. The real demon is the false solutions we use to try to solve our problems…

“Do you think human creativity matters? Well, most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about poetry, right? They have a life to live and they’re really not that concerned with Allen Ginsberg’s poems or anyone’s poems—until, their father dies; they go to a funeral; you lose a child; someone breaks your heart. And all of a sudden you’re desperate for making sense out of this life. ‘Has anybody felt this bad before? How did they come out of this cloud?’ Or the inverse—something great. You meet somebody and your heart explodes—you love them so much you can’t even see straight. You’re dizzy. ‘Did anybody feel like this before? What is happening to me?’ And that’s when art’s not a luxury—it’s actually sustenance. We need it.”
Ethan Hawke, TED

Beyond the Quote (276/365)

Has anybody felt as bad as you might be feeling? Yes. And worse. How did they come out of that cloud? They wrote about it. Talked about it. Created something with it. They expressed it. Connected with other people about it. And many of them left it there for people, like you, to find and possibly connect with, too. Have you found what they left for you? Or have you been distracted? Have you even tried to search or are you too busy not looking? Human creativity—art—is the sustenance we need to nourish our souls.

“There’s a thing that worries me sometimes when you talk about creativity because it can have this kind of feel that it’s just nice, or warm, or pleasant—it’s not. It’s vital. It’s the way we heal each other. In singing our song, in telling our story, in inviting you to say, ‘Hey, listen to me and I’ll listen to you,’ we’re starting a dialog. And when you do that this healing happens. And we come out of our corners. And we start to witness each other’s common humanity. We start to assert it. And when we do that? Really good things happen.”
Ethan Hawke, TED

“I believe that we are here—on this star is space—to help one another. And first, we have to survive. And then we have to thrive. And to thrive—to express ourselves—we have to know ourselves. What do you love? If you get close to what you love, who you are will be revealed to you—and it expands.”
Ethan Hawke, TED

25 Replenishing Quotes from The Gift Of A Year on Rest, Recovery, and Self Care

Excerpt: These 25 Quotes from The Gift Of A Year will replenish your soul and put the emphasis of your focus back to where it’s most important—on you.

If you fake it until you make it, beware:

People don’t think about you as much as you think.

Why though?

You don’t need other people’s approval.

Mark Manson Quote on Problems and How A Problem-Free Life Should Never Be The Goal

“Problems never stop; they merely get exchanged and/or upgraded.”
Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Beyond the Quote (274/365)

Let’s be clear: the goal shouldn’t be to live a problem-free life. There is no such thing as a problem free life. How could it be? The very act of staying alive and healthy is a forever shape-shifting landscape of compiling problems that confront us afresh every minute of every day. So, what is the goal then?

“Do you need to give yourself permission to do something big for your special year? Just imagine, as an alternative, spending the rest of your life being dragged behind the Great Dane of your overcommitments to others. For five minutes it’s cute. Over a lifetime, it destroys what’s best in you and what’s unique about you. If you don’t care about that, it’s too bad. Maybe they got you, all those voices working away from the time you were a little [child], trying to convince you that your only needs were to meet other people’s needs. But I think you do care. A lot.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 151)

“All kinds of strange things happened to shape you as you were growing up. Your parents pushed you. Or they ignored you. Your mother was overinvolved. Or your father was underinvolved. Your older sister was bossy. Or your younger brother was bratty. Your family had too much money. Or not enough money. But none of these things that happened to you are you. Otherwise you and I would be nothing more than the pretzels fate twisted us into when the dough of the self was still soft.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 149)

“Every couple of years a farmer lets his fields go fallow so the soil can replenish itself. Why should we be any different?”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 127)

“We can’t play out the stories of our lives according to the script other people have for us. That script may say we can’t get anything we need unless we’re sick. But you and I know that a life can be sick even when the mind and body are healthy. And sometimes the only way to heal a life is to give yourself the gift of a year in which you have an adventure where you make a dream come true. So what if you have to fight to win the freedom to give yourself that? Suppose you don’t do it. You’ll regret it forever.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 117)

“If you let fear be a reason not to explore what life has to offer, you will never explore what life has to offer. A little shiver of fear is a necessary price you must pay to give yourself the gift of a year that involves trying something new. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you’re not trembling just a little bit, you’re not really venturing anything either. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to remember to not be afraid of fear.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 117)

“You cannot explore the world and the possibilities life has to offer without moving outside the safe neighborhood of your life as it is, without wandering into some new and dangerous neighborhoods where anything can happen. Let’s tell it like it is. If it’s a real adventure, if it’s something really new, there’s got to be an element of danger somewhere. Otherwise you’re not really trying anything new at all. You’re just playing around with the edges of your old life.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 116)

“We never lose the good parts of ourselves we really care about. All the parts of yourself you’re wanting to put back in your life are there waiting for you. The pain you feel comes from the way these missing parts of yourself slowly choke from lack of oxygen when they’re buried. All you have to do is identify what’s really missing. Then make sure you find room for it in your life.”
Mira Kirshenbaum, The Gift of a Year (Page 111)