If I had a message to my contemporaries it is surely this: Be anything you like, be madmen, drunks, and bastards of every shape and form, but at all costs avoid one thing: success. If you are too obsessed with success, you will forget to live. If you have learned only how to be a success, your life has probably been wasted. — Thomas Merton
“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine” … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Choose an important area of your life where you have difficulty or conflict. Bring to mind the key beliefs you hold about the situation, the people, the institution, the circumstance. “They are….”, “I am….”, “It is….. “, etc. After you have brought the beliefs to mind, question them. Are they completely true? Are they one-sided? Who made up this story? What if some of the opposite was also true? What is our experience if we let these thoughts and beliefs go? … [click on the title to read and view more]
Listen!- we all have different reality tunnels...and they tell us different things if we're willing to listen...
In mental health circles the health of the body is often neglected. The body is too often considered secondary, if at all, when people become over-involved in things of the mind. And of course our culture has split the body/mind when in fact they function as one. Becoming aware of my poor neglected body has been critically important in my healing process. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Ibookn self-awareness there is no need for confession, for self-awareness creates the mirror in which all things are reflected without distortion. Every thought-feeling is thrown, as it were, on the screen of awareness to be observed, studied and understood; but this flow of understanding is blocked when there is condemnation or acceptance, judgment or identification. … [click on title to read the rest]
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Quite often the healing journey seems to be the bringing together of opposites. The resolution of paradox and the burning away of conditioning. These things are thematic. Here are a few quotes that are related to this process of paradox and healing in life.
The more I travel on this healing journey, the clearer it becomes that I am learning to let life-force guide me and thus heal me too. Becoming who I am completely means losing my conditioned self and letting life-force move me into oneness with all. This too is what Carl Jung might call the individuation process.
I remember the first time I encountered Ram Dass' book Be Here Now. I actually found it at a garage sale when I was in college. I had never heard of it and had no idea it was famous. It was truly an AHA moment for me. All these years later, remembering those three words as mantra continues to inspire. BE HERE NOW. It might be considered cliche in some circles but given I remember the first time I heard it and it was long before it became so colloquial, I still like it and it brings me to mindfulness. I'm sure it's important for people to find their own way of coming to mindfulness. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
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