“Some of the most religious people in Russia have an interesting habit: they make a low bow to persons to whom they are introduced for the first time. They say they do this to acknowledge the divine spirit that every person has within himself. This is not a widespread tradition, but its foundations are very deep.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 116)
“You have everything in you that Buddha has, that Christ has. You’ve got it all. But only when you start to acknowledge it is it going to get interesting. Your problem is you’re afraid to acknowledge your own beauty. You’re too busy holding on to your own unworthiness. You’d rather be a schnook sitting before some great man. That fits in more with who you think you are. Well, enough already. I sit before you and I look and I see your beauty, even if you don’t.”
Ram Dass, Grist For the Mill, via Sunbeams (Page 130)
“There are very strong words of Martin Luther King. His question was always, how is it that one group—the white group—can despise another group, which is the black group. And will it always be like this? Will we always be having an elite condemning or pushing down others that they consider not worthy? And he says something I find extremely beautiful and strong, that we will continue to despise people until we have recognized, loved, and accepted what is despicable in ourselves. There are some elements despicable in ourselves, which we don’t want to look at, but which are part of our natures. We are mortal.”
Jean Vanier, via Becoming Wise (Page 83)
“You can buy a Plume Blanche diamond-encrusted sofa for close to two hundred thousand dollars. It’s also possible to hire one person to kill another person for five hundred dollars. Remember that next time you hear someone ramble on about how the market decides what things are worth. The market might be rational… but the people who comprise it are not.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 97)
“You must begin to trust yourself sometime. I suggest you do it now. If you do not then you will forever be looking to others to prove your own merit to you, and you will never be satisfied. You will always be asking others what to do, and at the same time resenting those from whom you seek such aid. It will seem to you that their experience is legitimate and yours counterfeit. You will feel shortchanged. You will find yourself exaggerating the negative aspects of your life, and the positive sides of other people’s experiences. You are a multidimensional personality. Trust the miracle of your own being. Make no divisions between the physical and the spiritual in your lifetime, for the spiritual speaks with a physical voice and the corporeal body is the creation of the spirit.”
Jane Roberts, The Nature Of Personal Reality, via Sunbeams (Page 48)
“The fact is that it doesn’t matter if you are gambling to the point where it harms you, if you are drinking too much, if you are lost in your life and afraid to articulate even to yourself how unhappy you are, how fearful of the future, of death, of other people, of being poor, of not being good enough, sexy enough, thin enough, tough enough, famous enough, if you feel that you are not enough and that if you could only ‘X, Y, Z, then everything would be fine,’ I believe you are on the spectrum of addiction. By this definition: ‘Trying to solve an inner problem by outer means, in spite of negative consequences.'”
Russell Brand, Recovery (Page 221)
Stop Associating Being A Good Person With How Much You’re Willing To Suffer In Silence
“Can we please stop associating being a good person with how much you’re willing to suffer in silence for other people? You can be a kind person and still say, ‘No, I don’t have the time/energy to help you with that.’ You can be a kind person and still say, ‘This makes me uncomfortable, please stop.’ You can be a kind person and still say, ‘I disagree, and here’s why,’ you can be kind and still say, ‘I’m not okay with this.’ Being kind is about treating people with kindness and respect, not about being the human equivalent of a doormat.”
Unknown
Beyond the Quote (Day 409)
Nobody wants to be a doormat. Doormats have no boundaries. They get walked all over by anyone and everyone. They are used whether it’s morning or night; hot or cold; wet or dry; muddy or icy. Doormats suffer in silence for the convenience of all. They’ll never turn you away, disagree with the conditions of your shoes, say how they feel, or tell you it’s not an okay time. Being a doormat is not being a good person; being a doormat is demeaning to your person. Don’t be a doormat—be a door, instead.
Read More »Stop Associating Being A Good Person With How Much You’re Willing To Suffer In Silence“This is a magical place,” I said. “Everything shines here.” “You must stop yourself from thinking like that,” Dr. Kerry said, his voice raised. “You are not fool’s gold, shining only under a particular light. Whomever you become, whatever you make yourself into, that is who you always were. It was always in you. Not in Cambridge. In you. You are gold. And returning to BYU, or even to that mountain you came from, will not change who you are. It may change how others see you, it may even change how you see yourself—even gold appears dull in some lighting—but that is the illusion. And it always was.”
Tara Westover, Educated
“The path to self-discovery is not a straight line. It’s a zigzag. We move in and out of awareness: one step forward, three steps to the left, a baby step back, another leap forward. A lightbulb moment might shine brightly one day, but then flicker the next. It takes work to hold tightly to a certain consciousness, to live in its wisdom. Every day, I have to intentionally maintain an awareness of my value. I know I’m worthy. But you don’t cross over into the Land of Self-Worth and just become a permanent resident. You have to keep your passport current. You have to work to preserve your status.”
Alicia Keys, More Myself (Page 246)
