Posts Tagged ‘Facing Challenges’

Feel like Giving Up? Keep Moving Toward Your Dreams

Friday, October 14th, 2011

“What you still need to know is this: before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up. It’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one ‘dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.’”

“Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.”

Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist, page 132.

Feelings Teach Us About Ourselves And Our World

Monday, August 29th, 2011

“By going along with feelings,
you unify,
your emotional,
mental,
and bodily states.

When you try to fight
or deny them,
you divorce yourself
from the reality of your being.”

Jane Roberts, The Nature of Personal Reality

“That which oppresses me,
is it my soul
trying to come
out in the open,
or the soul of the world
knocking at my heart
for its entrance?

Rabindranath Tagore

Quotes from A Guide for the Advanced Soul.

Doing The Work….

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

“You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true.  You may have to work for it, however.”  pg 92

“Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.”  pg 110

“Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished.  If you’re alive, it isn’t.”   pg 121

Quotes from the book, Illusions, by Richard Bach. Please read this brilliant little book for motivation, encouragement and a deeper understanding.

Problems?

Sunday, December 5th, 2010

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”  Albert Einstein

“Returning one last time to our Bible story: we find that after many fierce battles, the Children of Israel finally conquer the Promised Land. And we see that it was Joshua, not Moses, who led the conquest. Joshua was a military leader, a warrior, a man of action. This tells us that a new archetype within consciousness is required to lead us into the New Beginning. We must call upon the ‘inner warrior.’ It is this warrior that embodies the qualities of strength, courage, discipline- and commitment.” Robert Brumet, Finding YourSelf in Transition, page 121.

“We no longer have oracles and visions – at least, we usually assume we do not. No initiation master rings the bell one morning and says, ‘Your time has come.’ But all the same, we do find ourselves periodically being disengaged either willingly or unwillingly from the activities, the relationships, the settings, and the roles that have been important to us. What if these often distressing losses were really symbolic events? What if they were signals that a time of personal transition was beginning?” William Bridges, Transitions, page 111.

“When individuals or communities use conflict as an opportunity to challenge their own ways of seeing things, they awaken to new aspects of themselves. They discover that their awareness can expand and grow beyond the limitations of their yesterday selves.”  Gary Simmons, The I of the Storm, page 87.

Having Trouble With Relationships?

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

“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.

Life Struggles?

Friday, October 1st, 2010

“We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success; we often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do, and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.”  Samuel Smiles

“You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want or a grief. But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.”  Kahlil Gibran

“As a progressive and evolving being. Man is where he is that he may learn that he may grow; and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstance contains for him it passes away to other circumstances.” James Allen, As A Man Thinketh.

Regrets?

Sunday, September 5th, 2010

“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.

Going Through Change?

Monday, August 30th, 2010

“Who are you? said the caterpillar… “I hardly know, Sir, just at present,” Alice replied rather shyly, “at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.”  -Lewis Carrol, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, (page 7 in Transitions).

“It takes a long time to be really married. One marries many times at many levels within a marriage. If you have more marriages than you have divorces within the marriage, you’re lucky and you stick it out.”  -Ruby Dee, In Brian Lanker, I Dream a World, (page 55 in Transitions).

“People change and forget to tell each other.” -Lillian Hellman, Toys in the Attic, (page 55 in Transitions).

“Whoever in middle age, attempts to realize the wishes and hopes of his early youth invariably deceives himself. Each ten years of a (person’s) life has its own fortunes, its own hopes, its own desires.”  -Wolfgang Von Goethe, (page 77 in Transitions).

“He has half the deed done, who has made a beginning.”  -Horace, Epistles (page 157 in Transitions).

“Not in his goals but in his transitions man is great.”  -Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol 5  (page 177 in Transitions).

The above quotes are found in Transitions, Making Sense Of Life’s Changes, by William Bridges. This is a very helpful and must read book if you are going through any transitions or changes in life.  The book covers transitions, endings, going through the neutral zone, and new beginnings.

Going Home

Monday, July 12th, 2010

“…To do this requires one to have a radical trust in God at work in his life or her life. As we embrace this trust, we find that the very force that shook our world and caused it to collapse around us – the force that we first resisted, then gradually accepted, and now align with – was the force that brought us home to our true Self. We are reminded of the man who said, “I prayed to God when the foundations of my life were being shaken…only to find that it was God that was shaking them!”

“So we begin to trust the ’shakings,’ and we no longer resist the force the crumbles the structure of our life. What we once called a tragedy, we now see as an opportunity for greater freedom, wisdom, and power – not to be feared, but actually welcomed.”

Robert Brumet, Finding Yourself in Transition, Using Life’s Changes for Spiritual Awakening, page 150.

Passing The Tests In Life

Monday, June 7th, 2010

“Jesus knew that life is lived from within out, and the Kingdom of God is within.” He knew that life is an opportunity to discover our divinity and release our  “imprisoned splendor.” He knew that, as a student enrolls in difficult courses of study so that he can further his education, so man, in his eternal unfoldment, often draws the most challenging experience to him because of the opportunity it affords for personal growth. Thus, in His analysis of the man born blind, He said, “This is not a case of punishment for previous wrongs. This is a case of man moving on to the next grade, ready for the more difficult tests that will lead to his greater development-if he can pass the tests.”

Eric Butterworth, Discover The Power Within You.