Tag: heart

Not listening to outside voices

Karl Duffy1 Comment

 

Childhood events and interactions can cause wounds which manifest later in the form of an inner  critic, making us feel smaller when faced with stressful situations. It is good to practice resting in our inner innate goodness – the light that comes from within – and not give other persons power over our moods or thoughts.

The object of this learning
is to remove outside authority
from your inner life.
Eliminate the old habit of
listening to others about your
own comfort and convenience

Moshe Feldenkrais

Finding moments of joy

Karl Duffy1 Comment

 

Life will bring you pain all by itself.

Your responsibility is to create joy

Milton Erikson, American Psychologist,

Fields that nourish the soul

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A lot of our weekday work is centered on our achievements and that can become the narrow focus of our lives. But it is the heart that gives life and what nourishes us in the deepest sense. So our busy lives need to be interrupted by times when we revisit the heart and simply walk in wider fields. 

Be kind
to your sleeping heart.
Take it out
into the vast fields
of Light
And let it
breathe.

Hafiz

Who you already are

Karl Duffy1 Comment

Don’t go looking elsewhere. Let go of all those ideas about lacking something or needing to attain something

The core essence of it all [life].. is to be who you already are –  rather than get lost in who you are afraid you are,  or think you might be and want to be – in the only moment we ever get, which is just this one. That’s easy to say, but it’s a non-trivial thing to actually engage in.

Jon Kabat Zinn

Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet.
Just throw away all thoughts of
imaginary things,
and stand firm in that which you are.

Kabir

More than our fears

Karl Duffy2 Comments

In Ireland,  Summer is officially over at the end of August, and, as if to acknowledge this, yesterday began foggy and grey. Typically,  however, the rest of the day turned out better than most of the Summer. The fog passed through, the sun came out. Today, we are told to expect heavy rain.  Small upsets or bigger storms…the sky can hold whatever passes through it.

It is essential to understand that an emotion is merely something that arises, remains and then goes away. A storm comes, it stays a while, and then it moves away. At the critical moment remember you are much more than your emotions. This is a simple thing that everyone knows, but you may need to be reminded of it: you are more than your emotions.

Thich Nhat Hahn, Healing Pain and Dressing Wounds

A new month: Living fully, without regrets

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File:Tully Cross thatched cottage.jpg

John O’Donohue told a story once about an occasion when he was still a priest and was sitting at the bedside of a dying man, offering his comfort and his presence. The man turned to him and said, with a great sense of calm, that he had no regrets, because he had taken a great big bite out of life.

It would be a significant thing if we could say that, not just at the end of life, but at the end of each day.

 Most people think they will regret foolish actions more than foolish inactions. But studies show that nine out of ten people are wrong. Indeed, in the long run, people of every walk of life seem to regret not having done things much more than they regret things they did.

Dan Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness

photo Linda Buckley