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Started reading
November 13, 2023
Unmade decisions hold power.
It’s estimated that adults make over 35,000 decisions every day.
A study at Cornell University revealed that Americans make over two hundred daily decisions on food alone.
We live in a world where many people don’t have the luxury of choice
We are conditioned to believe the only reason we should do things is if we know why, where we are headed, and for what purpose. No wonder we have trouble making decisions.
the thing we often think is The Thing is often not the thing but is, in fact, only a thing.
In the midst of this highly stimulating exterior world, I made a discovery about my interior world: the input is automatic. So where is the output? How am I regularly getting rid of the soul clutter I no longer need?
Begin to notice the naturally silent spaces in your days—the first light of morning, your office space when you arrive early, the walk to the mailbox, your apartment before your roommate gets home from work, the drive to the grocery store.
Lately I have been incorporating this simple practice into my routine, and it has been lifechanging. I live in a world where I am constantly bombarded with notifications and convinced that every second should be committed to being productive, so taking the opportunity to go on a walk without headphones, or make the bed without listening to a podcast has allowed me to find peace in this chaotic world.
When we refer to you, saying your name gives you a presence in the room even if you aren’t there.
The author makes a point to emphasize that assigning labels to what we are feeling and what we want - defining them - is critical. One of the ways she makes this point is by establishing the importance of having a name for ourselves. I love this quote because it reminds me that when I speak of friends and family, I am blessing others with their presence even when they are not physically present. And others are doing the same for me.
To know a person’s name is to know something of them.
Unnamed narratives will reveal themselves one way or another. If we don’t have the capacity to name them with our words, they will speak through our bodies.
When you catch a tiny glimpse of the future, be sure not to smother it with your own agenda. Let it breathe. Let it grow at a healthy pace.
We want our circumstances to change, to start again, to be brand-new. But when they change, we often don’t give ourselves permission to be new within them.
Rather than becoming an expert, children are free to be curious.
Let yourself be a beginner and receive all the gifts beginning has to give.
Fear works both ways, keeping you from doing things you might want to do and convincing you that you have to do things you don’t want to do.
We live in an outcomes-based culture, where the correctness of our choice seems based on the success of the result.
