Sharon Salzberg

Mindfulness allows us to shift the angle on our story and to remember that we have the capacity to learn and change in ways that are productive, not self-defeating.

We can use meditation as a way to experiment with new ways of relating to ourselves, even our uncomfortable thoughts.

The journey to loving ourselves doesn__ mean we like everything.

We__e capable of much more than mediocrity, much more than merely getting by in this world.

The heart contracts when our bodies are overcome by shame.

It__ affirming that we can look at any experience from the fullness of our being and get past the shame we carry.

So often, fear keeps us from being able to say yes to love__erhaps our greatest challenge as human beings.

The more we practice mindfulness, the more alert we become to the cost of keeping secrets.

Kindness is really at the core of what it means to be and feel alive.

When we do our best to treat others with kindness, it__ often a struggle to determine which actions best express our love and care for ourselves.

To imagine the way we think is the singular causative agent of all we go through is to practice cruelty toward ourselves.

The environment we create can help heal us or fracture us. This is true not just for buildings and landscapes but also for interactions and relationships.

As human beings, we__e capable of greatness of spirit, an ability to go beyond the circumstances we find ourselves in, to experience a vast sense of connection to all of life.

When we direct a lot of hostile energy toward the inner critic, we enter into a losing battle.

If we truly loved ourselves, we__ never harm another. That is a truly revolutionary, celebratory mode of self-care.

Keeping secrets is a consequential act for all involved.

Any time we find ourselves relying on the ideas of an absolute, frozen state of right and wrong__r fairness versus unfairness__hat we are used to, we can compare the habit to distraction during meditation.

Our senses are often the gateway to our stories.