“The people we are in relationship with are always a mirror, reflecting our own beliefs, and simultaneously we are mirrors reflecting their beliefs.

So relationship is one of the most powerful tools for growth…if we look honestly at our relationships we can see so much about how we have created them.”   Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization

“Our time out of relationship is just as important as our time in it. Indeed, it may be said that, when we are alone, we are preparing to be in relationship and, when we are in relationship, we are preparing to be alone. Hopefully, we begin to learn the lesson of our last relationship before we go into a new one. Then we can experience new challenges and grow in new ways.”  Paul Ferrini, Creating A Spiritual Relationship, page 119.

“Coming to completion in relationship is an internal task, not an interactive one. We do the best we can to separate in a dignified and loving way and to support each other in pursuing our new lives. That makes it easier for us to come to completion. But completion itself depends on our willingness to use relationship to move into greater appreciation of and fidelity to who we are and what we need. Then, we don’t betray ourselves in the next relationship.” Paul Ferrini, Creating A Spiritual Relationship, page 120.

“The more clear we get about who we are and what we want in a relationship, the easier it will be for us to be honest with others. That honesty will prevent us from getting involved in relationships with people who are unwilling to respect our experience or to work consciously with the unconscious material that inevitably comes up in a relationship.”  Paul Ferrini, Creating A Spiritual Relationship, page 120.

“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” Robertson Davies, quoted in the Wordswoth Dictionary of Quote

“A good mind is a lord of a kingdom.” Seneca, Thyestes

“As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery.” Martin Luther King, speech August 16, 1967

“Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.” Hans Margolius, quoted in A Toolbox For Humanity.

“The Empires of the future are the empires of the mind.” Winston Churchhill, speech at Harvard University, September 6, 1943

“To see a thing clearly in the mind makes it begin to take form.” Henry Ford, Theosophist Magazine, February, 1930

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven.” John Milton, Paradise Lost.

“Some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles.” Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, 1820.

“The mind of man is capable of anything-because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future.”  -Joseph Conrad

“Regret is often a symptom of not being authentic in relation to a particular circumstance. When you fail to speak your truth or act in integrity with your own values and guiding  principles, you experience a measure of torment. While you may have difficulty in defining your own sense of authenticity, you are acutely aware when you are not being true to yourself.”

“Not speaking our truth is a strategy most of us learned as children. We all have been raised to blend in to some degree, or not feel our feelings. It is no wonder that so many of us have become so dependent in our relationships. We have found greater security and comfort in meeting other people’s needs, responding  to other people’s feelings rather than our own. Authenticity is a fundamental component of wholeness. It honors all that we are. With authenticity, we become cocreators of a fulfilling life that springs forth from all which is genuine and beautiful in us. Authenticity is the litmus test of our self-worth. When we truly value ourselves, we live in integrity with our spiritual nature.”

Gary Simmons, The I of the Storm, Embracing Conflict, Creating Peace, page 61.

“You can now begin to contemplate how you can deliberately will creative construction; you can do it by consciously formulating, thinking, and willing, a state of happiness, aliveness, fulfillment, truth, love, growth, both in general and in particular detail. The climate of this may first seem strange and unfamiliar. You need to acclimatize yourself to it. Picture yourself in such states and call upon the universal power within to fortify your conscious mind with the necessary creative energy. The will to happiness must be so strong  that the causes for unhappiness must be seen and eliminated, and this, too, must truly be wanted. Then the creative power will grow; the divine self will inspire you and show the way. You will learn to recognize it and receive it in your conscious brain.”

Eva Pierrakos, The Pathwork Of Self-Transformation, page 222.

“But you can significantly reduce the amount of negative judging that you do, and this is a kind of forgiveness that will help to improve the quality of your life dramatically. The first thing to remember about judgments is that they do not alter anything or anyone in the universe. Just because you dislike someone or react negatively toward some behavior does not change the person or the behavior you are judging. I remind you again to keep in mind that when you judge another, you do not define that person, you define yourself. Your judgments only say something about you. They describe your likes and dislikes. They do not define the person being judged. That person is being defined by his or her own thoughts and actions. Once you recognize this, you begin replacing your inclination to judge with acceptance, and this is forgiveness in action.”

“When you accept others, you no longer experience the hurt that goes with judging them. When someone acts in a way you find disagreeable, understand that your hurt, anger, fear, or any strong emotion is how you have chosen to process that person’s behavior. If you are unable or unwilling to notice that emotion and subsequently let go of it, then it is your self that is in need of the attention. That person’s behavior has collided with something unfinished or unacknowledged in your life. Distress at the person’s behavior is your way of avoiding something inside of you. A fine distincion, perhaps, but a very significant one.”

Wayne W. Dyer, You’ll See It When You Believe It, page 276.

“To have inner peace as our single goal we need to correct the erroneous belief that justified anger or grievances bring us peace. Anger and attack simply do not bring peace of mind.”  page 102

“Today, allow yourself to have the single goal of inner peace by putting all your attention on the following thoughts: Today I will view without judgment everything that occurs. All events provide me with another opportunity to experience Love in the place of fear.”  page 102

“Evaluating and being evaluated by others, a habit from the past, results at worst in fear and at best in conditional love. To experience unconditional Love, we must get rid of the evaluator, we need to hear our strong inner voice saying to ourselves and others, ‘I totally Love and accept you as you are.’”  page 98

Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D., Love Is Letting Go Of Fear.

“Each crises can be  a turning point that leads to the death of an old way of being and to the birth of a new life. Indeed, evolution proceeds through a process of deaths and rebirths, of endings and new beginnings. Out of fear and ignorance, we often resist our endings, our deaths. Our human conditioning may lead us to believe that “all is lost forever.” Yet wisdom and faith allow us to see beyond the appearance of tragedy, to the new life beyond. We then begin to see each ending, each death, not as a tragedy, but as a prelude to transformation.” page 135

“The key element in dealing effectively with crises is that of a mindful awareness: a willingness to consciously experience our discomfort without denial or distraction. Awareness is essential for transformation.” page 134

“A question we often hear is, “What is the divine plan for my life?” The answer can rarely be stated in words, but it can be found by simply looking at what is in front of us. Step by step, day by day, the plan unfolds before our very eyes. The path we must take is the path we are on.” page 138

The above quotes are from Robert Brumet’s, Finding Yourself in Transition, Using Life’s Changes for Spiritual Awakening.

“To hold joy, we may sometimes have to fight for it, we may have to strengthen ourselves and go full-bore, doing battle in whichever ways deem most shrewd. To prepare for siege, we may have to go without many comforts for the duration. We can go without most things for long periods of time, anything almost, but not our joy, not those handmade red shoes.” page 254

“…It is from a poem by Charles Simic and it is the ultimate instruction to us all: ‘He who cannot howl, will not find the pack.’ If you want to re-summon Wild Women, refuse to be captured. With instincts sharpened for balance-jump anywhere you like, howl at will, take what there is, find out all about it, let your eyes show your feelings, look into everything, see what you can see. Dance in red shoes, but make sure they’re the ones you made by hand. I can promise that you will become one vital women.” page 254

Read the story of The Red Shoes in “Self-preservation” on page 215 of Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D.

“To accept the innate godlike power of our Spiritual Self is very frightening to the ego mind, and we will often fight for the viewpoint that various things are impossible and that our powers are limited. Such power is actually the opposite of the ego, which feels its boundary to be of the body. But remember that our ego has no power beyond that which we give it, and in the moments we come to this full realization, then the ego will cease to exist, or at least for that moment will loose its primary place in our thoughts. By recognizing our own potential divinity, we will loose nothing but our mistaken sense of littleness, the feeling of being out of control of our lives, and our fears and suffering in relationships.”  Henry Grayson, PH.D, Mindful Loving, page 85.

“The connection between our thoughts and our lives is inseparable. The degree to which our thoughts are out of control is the degree to which our lives and our relationships feel out of control. Just as we can easily understand that an athlete or musician cannot perform well if his thoughts are out of control-that is, not focused-so it is true in every arena of our lives. A person with angry thoughts is likely to be an angry person. A person who houses fear thoughts is likely to be a frightened person; and, as we saw above, this often attracts like a powerful force field what he is afraid of into his life. A person with a disorganized mind is likely to be disorganized in his life. A person with hopeless, judgmental, guilty, or powerless thoughts is likely to be depressed. And on it goes, all affecting how our relationships progress.”  Henry Grayson, PH.D., Mindful Loving, page 85.

“What we need to experience, and what we can experience, is a saner and gentler state of mind. This experience is not found in something outside of us…We must work with our minds, with our abilities, in order to have peaceful, rich minds.”  Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, Transforming Mental Afflictions and Other Selected Teachings.

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.”   Jesus

“Change your thoughts and you change your world.”   Norman Vincent Peale

“Give your thoughts no tongue.”  William Shakespeare

“When we direct our thoughts properly, we can control our emotions.”  W.Clement Stone

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”  Albert Einstein

“The more man meditates on good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large.”  Confucius

“We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.”   Swani Vivekananda

“Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.”  Soren Kierkegaard

“It takes but one positive thought when given a chance to survive and thrive to overpower an entire army of negative thoughts.”  Robert H. Schuller