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by
Phil Stutz
The Comfort Zone is supposed to keep your life safe, but what it really does is keep your life small.
Instead of admitting we’re avoiding pain, we tell ourselves we’re being virtuous;
“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too … raising
Courage is the ability to act in the face of fear.
To develop courage, you have to give up this illusion of future certainty.
Improv
experience fear without the mental image of the dreaded future event.
life will never exempt you from facing more pain.
If you’re honest with yourself, you question whether you’re really on their level.
An effective leader can tolerate the displeasure of others.
What was most painful was the degree of concentration required. Concentration involves shutting out the rest of the world and focusing on one thing. For most of us, that effort is extremely painful.
You’re engaged in a futile attempt to restore fairness to your world.
As long as you’re in the Maze, you still need something from the person who wronged you.
Like children, we expect love to be effortless. Part of growing up spiritually is understanding that it takes work to be truly loving.
A great communicator has faith that there’s a reserve of goodwill in most relationships, even if it’s temporarily absent.
Outflow is the force that accepts everything as it is.
Insecure people are so obsessed with how others perceive them that they give almost nothing of themselves.
She wouldn’t even deign to say hello. “You seemed completely stuck-up and uninterested in us!”
People give you opportunities because they feel connected to you.
As she put it, “I guess I can’t even find my real self unless I express it.”
But creating a balanced relationship with the Shadow isn’t one choice or the other, it’s a process. You need to work on your partnership with the Shadow all the time.
The people who get the most opportunities to connect romantically aren’t those who make the best partners; they’re those who put themselves out there the most.
Writer’s block happens when writers become more interested in the outcome of their efforts than in the process of writing.
We like to think we react to the world as it is, when really we react to a world that exists in our own minds.
I really believed that, as long as I worried about it, it wouldn’t happen.”
worry had become a powerful superstition—with no more real benefit than a rabbit’s foot.
Once you use the Grateful Flow at these times, you’ll see how undisciplined the mind is.
Until you can control your mind, you’re spiritually immature.
Normally we envision peace of mind as a resting state. But that isn’t peace, it’s passivity. Because it requires constant work to stay connected to the Source—peace of mind is an active state.
Every one of us has a fantasy of a “magical something”—a relationship, job, achievement, or possession—that will remove us from the treadmill that is real life.
Phil calls this fantasy of living an effort-free, undemanding life “exoneration.”
a beautiful woman on my arm
Let yourself fantasize that you get the “magical something” and it does take the struggle out of your life. Let yourself feel that for a moment. Now, crush that fantasy: imagine it can never become reality.
especially when we enter the dark, inner sanctum of its power, the shopping mall.
Consumers try to make up for their laziness by gorging on new information—TV, podcasts, web searches, texts, e-mails, etc.
It’s exactly when we’re demoralized that the universe becomes our partner.
For most of us, the truth—that every moment counts—is too much pressure to bear.
So God made the earth and placed man in its challenging environment.
Human beings are only happy when they are reaching toward their highest potential.
Science accepts nothing that can’t be proven logically.
the driving force of spiritual evolution is personal problems.
Far from destroying his sense of meaning, problems actually reinforce it.
When they see and feel you doing things you’ve never done before, it expands their sense of what’s possible for them.
A healthy spirit maintains a positive view of the future and constantly works to create that future.
Behind the rejection of the other is a deeper rejection of a part of yourself.
“stewards” of society, protecting its resources and exemplifying its ideals;
The reason for this is hiding in plain sight. Almost everyone in our society is dissatisfied with what they have; no one believes they have enough.
or the fact that so many other individuals are willing to work in positions that are much less rewarding.
Real happiness is the constant presence of higher forces in our lives.
