“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
“Closing down in the midst of pain is a denial of a man’s true nature. A superior man is free in feeling and action, even amidst great pain and hurt. If necessary, a man should live with a hurting heart rather than a closed one. He should learn to stay in the wound of pain and act with spontaneous skill and love even from that place.” ~ David Deida, The Way of the Superior Man
“The attempt to avoid legitimate suffering lies at the root of all emotional illness.” ~ Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled
“The quickest, simplest, and most powerful way I know to handle any emotion is to remember a time when you felt a similar emotion and realize that you’ve successfully handled this emotion before.” ~ Anthony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within
“You and I must realize that the English language is filled with words that, in addition to their literal meanings, convey distinct emotional intensity. For example, if you develop a habit of saying you ‘hate’ things – you ‘hate’ your hair; you ‘hate’ your job; you ‘hate’ having to do something – do you think this raises the intensity of your negative emotional states more than if you use a phrase like ‘I prefer something else’?” ~ Anthony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within
“All that you really want in life is to change how you feel. Again, all your emotions are nothing but biochemical storms in your brain, and you are in control of them at any moment in time. You can feel ecstasy right now, or you can feel pain or depression or overwhelmed – it’s all up to you. You don’t need drugs or anything else to do it.” ~ Anthony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within
“Emotions are far more contagious than any disease. A smile or a panic will spread through a group of people far faster than any virus ever could. When you walk into the office or a negotiation, then, wash your bad mood away before you see us. Don’t cough on us, don’t sneeze on us, sure, but don’t bring your grouchiness, your skepticism or your fear in here either. It might spread.”
Seth Godin
“By learning to bear witness to our own pain and responding with kindness and understanding, rather than greeting difficult emotions by fighting hard against them, we open ourselves up to genuine healing and a new experience of living; this is self-compassion.” ~ Jennifer Chrisman, Tiny Buddha
“There is an intrinsic law: thoughts don’t have their own life. They are parasites; they live on your identifying with them. When you say, ‘I am angry,’ you are pouring life energy into anger, because you are getting identified with anger. But when you say, ‘I am watching anger flashing on the screen of the mind within me,’ you are not anymore giving any life, any energy to anger.”
Osho, The Book of Understanding (page 117)