The Elusive Art of Inner Wholeness and How to Stop Hiding Our Souls
“a protection against real intimacy, real friendship and real engagement with our work,” a way not to feel “the full vulnerability of being visible and touchable in a difficult world.” In anxiety, we disallow ourselves “the ability to stop and rest and the spacious silence needed for... a new understanding” — and all true intimacy opens into a new ... See more
Maria Popova • The Marginalian
When we see ourselves as we are, we free up so much of our energy to do the stuff that matters. If we’re going to get stronger, it’s not going to be a product of running away from what scares us. If we’re going to expand, it’s going to be the product of challenging our fears and taking risks.
Tripp Lanier • This Book Will Make You Dangerous: The Irreverent Guide For Men Who Refuse to Settle
Authenticity, however, involves allowing ourselves to feel rejected by the friend who abandoned us, hurt by our friend’s taunts, or incompatible with our childhood friend. It’s a state of internal honesty. It’s who we are underneath these defense mechanisms we’ve constructed for our self-protection.* And when we dislodge these defenses, we find we
... See moreMarisa G. Franco, PhD • Platonic: How Understanding Your Attachment Style Can Help You Make and Keep Friends
The mask stems from our often frantic and always doomed attempts to live up to a “perfect” ideal, an idealized self-image. The effort to force ourselves to conform to a perfect picture of who we think we ought to be keeps us agitated and distant from the peace of self-acceptance. Perfectionism is a central block to happiness, preventing our ability
... See moreEva Pierrakos • The Undefended Self: Living the Pathwork
The considered life – in which we take back authorship of our narratives – gives some structure to that self-image and resists its distortion by others. It is not to deny our weaknesses by developing an unrealistic faith in strengths we don’t possess. Witness any number of TV talent-show hopefuls who, after dispatching their tuneless misadventure i
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