"Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling
through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a
channel into which all other thoughts are
drained." -- Arthur Somers Roche
"Year by year the complexities of this
spinning world grow more bewildering and so
each year we need all the more to seek peace
and comfort in the joyful simplicities." --
Woman's Home Companion, December 1935
"If we could learn how to balance rest
against effort, calmness against strain,
quiet against turmoil, we would assure
ourselves of joy in living and psychological
health for life." -- Josephine Rathbone
"In the sweet territory of silence we touch
the mystery. It's the place of reflection
and contemplation, and it's the place where
we can connect with the deep knowing, to the
deep wisdom way." -- Angeles Arrien
"My greatest wealth is the deep stillness in
which I strive and grow and win what the
world cannot take from me with fire or
sword." -- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
"The trouble with being in the rat race is
that even if you win, you're still a rat."
-- Lily Tomlin |
|
"Drop the idea that you are Atlas carrying
the world on your shoulders. The world would
go on even without you. Don't take yourself
so seriously." -- Norman Vincent Peale
With today's
fast pace of life, too many of us have no
sense of how it feels to be free of stress.
Racing through life is addictive. If we stay
in high gear too long, we lose our ability
to shift down. High stress triggers negative
emotions like frustration, impatience, anger
and fear. And when we're stressed, we can't
access happiness, appreciation, fun,
compassion, generosity, awareness of beauty
and other wonderful qualities.
If our schedule is always packed, our minds
and bodies don't have time to rest. Stress
is directly linked to the way we think. We
get lost in critical, fearful, obsessive
thoughts and our experience of life matches
the turmoil within.
If our minds are always busy, they don't get
time to do basic maintenance - to sort, tidy
up and take out the trash. If we don't
periodically create space in our minds,
there's no room for new ideas to be noticed
and take root. How can we hear our wise
voice of intuition if we are always
thinking, talking and distracted by outer
events?
Sages all say that the path to liberation is
found in entering the stillness within. To
experience that stillness, we need to be
willing to regularly stop the activity for a
while. Life has so much to offer if we will
slow down and truly experience it. We must
always remember that we are the ones in
control of the accelerator. We CAN choose to
brake.
Where do you need to say 'no' to create some
time for solitude and silence?
"All man's miseries derive from not being
able to sit quietly in a room alone." -- Blaise Pascal
|
