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    “You hurting yourself by trying to let folk know they hurt you. God gives us five sense for a reason. You hear me? Use them. Stop hunting for distractions. Stop taking your own legs out. It’s enough mess out there trying to beat us down without you helping.”

    Kiese Laymon’s Grandmother, Heavy (Page 114)

      “Your inner doom & gloom thoughts and feelings have no power over you unless you give it away. It’s possible to make mistakes and still be accepted and valued for who you are. It’s also possible to not be at your best and still make an impact. Hopefully, knowing this activates a sense of freedom that allows you to enjoy yourself more in all you do.”

      Nat Couropmitree

        “People who feel safe and meaningfully connected with others have little reason to squander their lives doing drugs or staring numbly at television; they don’t feel compelled to stuff themselves with carbohydrates or assault their fellow human beings. However, if nothing they do seems to make a difference, they feel trapped and become susceptible to the lure of pills, gang leaders, extremist religions, or violent political movements—anybody and anything that promises relief.”

        Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps The Score (Page 353) | ★ Featured on this book list.

          “The greatest sources of our suffering are the lies we tell ourselves.”

          Elvin Semrad, The Body Keeps The Score (Page 11)

            “Like the volcano or the Phoenix, the creative process is an inferno that makes room for something new, something brilliant, something lovely. It’s messy. It’s bloody. It’s demanding. It’s rigorous. But, it’s also human. We destroy things not out of hatred but out of love—to make room to till the soil and plant the seeds of our vision. So, when you find yourself feeling self-destructive, don’t panic. Instead, reflect. What vision are you subconsciously making room for?“

            Cole Schafer (January Black), One Minute, Please? (Page 62)

              “We all have to contend with the natural processes of destruction. Everything is impermanent—your body’s going to get old; your best friend is going to graduate and move to another city; that tree you used to climb in front of Stacey Brooks’s house is going to crash down in a storm. Your parents are going to die. Everything changes; it rises, and it falls. Nothing and no one is immune to the entropy of the universe. That is why self-destruction is such a terrible crime. It’s hard enough as it is.”

              Will Smith, Will (Page 158)

                “We often resist most deeply the things that we want most.”

                Brianna Wiest, The Mountain Is You (Page 118)