Skip to content

    “Denying negative emotions leads to experiencing deeper and more prolonged negative emotions and to emotional dysfunction.  Constant positivity is a form of avoidance, not a valid solution to life’s problems—problems which, by the way, if you’re choosing the right values and metrics, should be invigorating you and motivating you.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

      “When it comes down to it, if you feel crappy it’s because your brain is telling you that there’s a problem that’s unaddressed or unresolved.  In other words, negative emotions are a call to action.  When you feel them, it’s because you’re supposed to do something.  Positive emotions, on the other hand, are rewards for taking the proper action.  When you feel them,  life seems simple and there is nothing else to do but enjoy it.  Then, like everything else, the positive emotions go away, because more problems inevitably emerge.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

        “The desire for a more positive experience is itself a negative experience.  And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

        When anger can be good:

          When anger can be good:

          Picture Quote Text:

          “Anger can be good if it’s an energy that motivates you towards action to right the thing that is angering you.” ~ Martin Sheen

            “Consciousness exists on two levels: as seeds and as manifestations of these seeds.  Suppose we have a seed of anger in us.  When conditions are favorable, that seed may manifest as a zone of energy called anger.  It is burning, and it makes us suffer a lot.  It is very difficult for us to be joyful at the moment the seed of anger manifests.  Every time a seed has an occasion to manifest itself, it produces new seeds of the same kind.  If we are angry for five minutes, new seeds of anger are produced and deposited in the soil of our unconscious mind during those five minutes.  That is why we have to be careful in selecting the kind of life we lead and the emotions we express.  When I smile, the seeds of smiling and joy have come up.  As long as they manifest, new seeds of smiling and joy are planted.  But if I don’t practice smiling for a number of years, that seed will weaken, and I may not be able to smile anymore.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step

              “Not only is everything I experience part of who I am, Spirit-filled, and not to be rejected, but there is no need to go searching for something special anywhere else.  Everything life has to offer is always right here wherever I am right now.  There is no place more alive and sacred than this place.  No time more alive and sacred than this time.” ~ Robert Kull, Solitude

                This being human is a guest house.
                Every morning a new arrival.
                A joy, a depression, a meanness,
                some momentary awareness comes
                as an unexpected visitor.
                Welcome and entertain them all!
                Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
                who violently sweep your house
                empty of its furniture,
                still, treat each guest honorably.
                He may be clearing you out
                for some new delight.
                The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
                meet them at the door laughing,
                and invite them in.
                Be grateful for whoever comes
                because each has been sent
                as a guide from beyond.

                ~ Rumi, via Solitude

                  “Anxiety is part of our human condition, and we need to learn to treat it as an old friend, or least a familiar acquaintance.  Many therapists say to do something to avoid anxiety, but in such endless activity much of our experience – joyful and painful – is lost.  Seems like a hard bargain.” ~ Robert Kull, Solitude

                    “When sadness comes, be really sad.  Don’t try to escape from it – allow it, cooperate with it.  Let it dissolve in you and you be dissolved in it.  Become one with it.  Be really sad: no resistance, no conflict and no struggle.  When happiness comes, be happy: dance and be ecstatic.  When happiness comes, don’t try to cling to it.  Don’t say that it should remain always and always; that is the way to miss it.  When sadness comes, don’t say, ‘Don’t come to me,’ or, ‘If you have come, please go soon.’ That is the way to miss it.  Don’t reject sadness and don’t cling to happiness.” ~ Osho, The Art of Living and Dying

                      “Sadness has a song… a very deep phenomenon is sadness.  Accept it.  Enjoy it.  Taste it without any rejection, and you will see that it brings many gifts to you which no happiness can ever bring.  If you can accept sadness it is no longer sadness; you have brought a new quality to it.  You will grow through it.  Now it will not be a stone, a rock on the path blocking the way; it will become a step.” ~ Osho, The Art of Living and Dying

                        “Sadness is sad because you dislike it.  The sadness is sad because you would not like to be in it.  The sadness is sad because you reject it.  Even sadness becomes a flowering of tremendous beauty, of silence and of depth, if you like it.  Happiness is always shallow; sadness, always deep.  Happiness is like a wave; sadness is like the innermost depth of an ocean.  In sadness you remain with yourself, left alone.  In happiness you start moving with people and you start sharing.  In sadness you close your eyes and you delve deep within yourself.” ~ Osho, The Art of Living and Dying