by Liz B | May 28, 2018 | Fear, Mental Health
The more life experiences I gather as the years go by, the more I realize how many of us are underneath the surface, very dominated by fear in many ways.
For example, we might be dominated by fear of looking different, fear of being alone, fear of silence, fear of our lives ending early, fear of being hurt/rejection, fear of anything bad happening at any moment, etc…
One of the greatest challenges in our lives is to try to overcome these fears. Partly because a lot of the time it’s always there in the background, to the point where we might not even notice it anymore, until at some point it rears its ugly head.
Sometimes we don’t even understand that the basis of our fear is different than what we might think it is. Part of learning to dissolve our fears is learning how our minds work, and how our perceptions can work to build up this image of ourselves and the world that underlies the fear.
I too have a lot of fear in my life just because I have a predisposition to anxiety (with my “Generalized Anxiety Disorder” and all).
Here are some quotes on fear that I personally love and that might help you feel more inspired to face them, or just feel more at ease.
“If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
―
Marianne Williamson
“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”
―
Alan W. Watts,
The Culture of Counter-Culture: Edited Transcripts
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
―
H. Jackson Brown Jr.,
P.S. I Love You
“I have accepted fear as part of life – specifically the fear of change… I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back….”
―
Erica Jong
“Nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.”
―
Gautama Buddha
“We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas.”
―
Alan W. Watts
“When you find out that there was never anything in the dark side to be afraid of … Nothing is left but to love.”
―
Alan W. Watts
“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.”
―
Seneca
“When we think we have been hurt by someone in the past, we build up defenses to protect ourselves from being hurt in the future. So the fearful past causes a fearful future and the past and future become one. We cannot love when we feel fear…. When we release the fearful past and forgive everyone, we will experience total love and oneness with all.”
―
Gerald G. Jampolsky
What are some of your biggest fears? Comment down below and let me know!
by Liz B | May 22, 2018 | Identity, Spirituality
1. “I might only truly become my fullest self if I explored and stayed open to moving through daunting terrain.”
― Sarah Lewis
2. “War within ourselves is always a prelude to war outside ourselves. All war starts within our own hearts. When our egos are inflated or our desires insatiable, we go to war with the other for the sad joy of maintaining our one-dimensional worlds.”
― Joan D. Chittister
3. “The closer you come to knowing that you alone create the world of your experience, the more vital it becomes for you to discover just who is doing the creating.”
― Eric Micha’el Leventhal
4. “It is better for you to take responsibility for your life as it is, instead of blaming others, or circumstances, for your predicament. As your eyes open, you’ll see that your state of health, happiness, and every circumstance of your life has been, in large part, arranged by you — consciously or unconsciously.”
― Dan Millman
5. You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself…the height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. …And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.”
― Leonardo da Vinci
Alan Watts
6. “You’re under no obligation to be the same person you were 5
minutes ago.”
― Alan W. Watts
7. “The ego-self constantly pushes reality away. It constructs a future out of empty expectations and a past out of regretful memories.”
― Alan W. Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity
8. “The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end – you don’t come to an achievement, you don’t come to a conclusion. It is an endless river.”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti
9. “I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite – only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am ready to try this for the next ten thousand years, and exhaust it. How sweet to think of! my extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.”
― Henry David Thoreau
10. “The tragedy in a man’s life is what dies inside of him while he lives.”
― Albert Schweitzer
by Liz B | Oct 24, 2013 | Lifestyle, Quotes
“Participants in my trainings sometimes ask, ‘I know what I need to do, but where do I find the discipline? How do I motivate myself?’ When people ask me how to do something, I remind them that they already know how; they are really asking, ‘What’s the easy way?’
On planet Earth, ‘easy’ is hard to find. Any accomplishment requires effort, courage and will; some goals involve more difficulty, others less. If we really go for what we want; we encounter one kind of difficulty; if we give up, we confront another kind. Either way, life is difficult.
Positive change of any kind requires that we climb higher, expand our awareness, focus, pay attention, and invest time and energy. Those of us who master change, or at least accept it, recognize the cold, clear realities. Those who haven’t yet accepted how the world works still look for the way way out, that magic formula that produces something for nothing.”
-Dan Millman, No Ordinary Moments
