More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
take responsibility for experiencing—and
and eventually expressing—them safely, and then for letting them go.
mantra for managing his emotions: notice, acce...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
sad, mad, glad, scared.
we remain victims as long as we hold another person responsible for our own well-being.
So often when we are unhappy it is because we are taking too much responsibility or we are taking too little. Instead of being assertive and choosing clearly for ourselves, we might become aggressive (choosing for others), or passive (letting others choose for us), or passive-aggressive (choosing for others by preventing them from achieving what they are choosing for themselves).
responsibility of making their own joy.
an honest expression of “I want” or “I am.”
if you give up the authority of your own choices, then you are agreeing to be a victim—and a prisoner.
What do you want?
Who wants it?
It’s our responsibility to act in service of our authentic selves. Sometimes this means giving up the need to please others, giving up our need for others’ approval.
What are you going to do about it?
change and freedom also require pos...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Change is about noticing what’s no longer working and stepping out of the familiar, imprisoning patterns.
When?
time to take action now.
There’s also the opportunity to find a way to suffer less, to choose happiness, which requires taking responsibility for yourself.
“How can I be useful to you?” How can I support you as you take responsibility for yourself?
“When you stop doing what’s best for you and start doing what you think someone else needs, you are making a choice that has consequences for you. It has consequences for Todd too.
When we abdicate taking responsibility for ourselves, we are giving up our ability to create and discover meaning. In other words, we give up on life.
learning how to take risks that are necessary to true self-realization.
Taking risks
means embracing our fears so that we aren’t imprisoned by them.
believe in the importance of defending what is right and defying what is unjust and inhumane. And I believe in choices. Freedom lies in examining the choices available to us and examining the consequences of those choices.
when you lose your temper, you might feel strong in the moment, but really you are handing your power over. Strength isn’t reacting, it’s responding—feeling your feelings, thinking them over, and planning an effective action to bring you closer to your goal.
Doing what is right is rarely the same as doing what is safe.
Time doesn’t heal. It’s what you do with the time. Healing is possible when we choose to take responsibility, when we choose to take risks, and finally, when we
choose to release the wound, to let go of the past or the grief.
the key: the willingness to take absolute responsibility for your life; the willingness to risk; the willingness to release yourself from judgment and reclaim your innocence, accepting and loving yourself for who you really are—human, imperfect, and whole.
Freedom is in accepting what is and forgiving ourselves, in opening our hearts to discover the miracles that exist now.
you can choose how you live now.
healing isn’t about recovery; it’s about discovery. Discovering hope in hopelessness, discovering an answer where there doesn’t seem to be one, discovering that it’s not what happens that matters—it’s what you do with it.
