Much of what holds us back is not reality itself, but the stories we tell ourselves about what might go wrong.
Our doubts are traitors,
and make us lose the good we oft might win,
by fearing to attempt.
William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure.
Courage is not the absence of fear.
It is the presence of clarity.
Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao: Daily Meditations,
Most people move through the world following signs made by others (who had no idea what they were doing).
To find your destiny, wipe the map clean.
Then chart your own course by your heart’s magnetic pull toward true north.
Martha Beck
To a disciple who begged for wisdom the Master said,
“Try this out: Close your eyes and see yourself and every living being thrown off the top of a precipice.
Each time you cling to something to stop yourself from falling understand that that is falling too.”
The disciple tried it out and never was the same again.
Anthony de Mello, sj., One Minute Wisdom
A new month begins….
We are daily forced to choose between depression and anxiety. Depression results from the wounding of the individuation imperative; anxiety results from moving forward into the unknown.
That path of anxiety is necessary because therein lies the hope of the person to more nearly become an individual. My analyst once said to me, “You must make your fears your agenda.” When we do take on that agenda, for all the anxiety engendered, we feel better because we know we are living in ‘bonne foi’ [good faith] with ourselves.
Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the perception that some things are more important to us than what we fear.
James Hollis, Jungian Analyst, Swamplands of the Soul: New Life in Dismal Places
Every man has his own courage,
and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mindfulbalance 