G. Graham > G.'s Quotes

“Don't wish it was easier wish you were better. Don't wish for less problems wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenge wish for more wisdom”
― Jim Rohn

“Our department takes 1,120 calls every day. Do you know how many of the calls the public expects perfection on? 1,120. Nobody calls the fire department and says, 'Send me two dumb-ass firemen in a pickup truck.' In three minutes they want five brain-surgeon decathlon champions to come and solve all their problems.”
― John Eversole

“Honor your psychedelic experience. Honor your intuition. Honor your soul.”
― G. Scott Graham, Psychedelic Integration Workbook: Sixty-Day Journal & Transcendence Blueprint

“Envision your future self. Dream. Explore.
Be courageous. Confront and push yourself.”
― G. Scott Graham, Psychedelic Integration Workbook: Sixty-Day Journal & Transcendence Blueprint

“Paddleboarding is the best thing ever! It’s like when you stick your head out of the car window, but the whole world is water!”
― Groot, SUP with your Pup: A Guide to Paddleboarding with your Dog

“Humans can be stubborn. They think nothing bad will happen”
― Groot, SUP with your Pup: A Guide to Paddleboarding with your Dog

“Grief isn’t a process to go through. Grief isn’t a problem to overcome. Grief isn’t something to put behind you. Grief is a gift. Yes, you read that last sentence correctly: at some point during the past seventeen months, I realized the truth that grief is a gift.​”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Meditation & Grief

“Nothing you can say can make anything any better, so shut up… Don’t deny their grief. Just be there. Resist the urge to console. Be a witness. Be a witness. Be a witness. That’s what people who are grieving really need. They just want someone to shut up and be there with them. Be present. Be present. Be present.”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Meditation & Grief

“I can tell you as I write this book, my grief has not lessened. My eyes have welled up so many times while sitting here at the keyboard that I had to just stop because I couldn’t see the screen.”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Meditation & Grief

“It’s not about moving on. It was about staying connected. It was about staying committed. It was about honoring everything we worked for in our 31 years together. Changing my last name was a natural evolution of that focus.​”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Meditation & Grief

“Don’t Ask. Act. Don’t Ask. Act. Don’t Ask. Act. Got it? … She didn’t ask. She didn’t suggest. She took action. It was exactly what I needed. It is exactly what people who are grieving need.​”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Meditation & Grief

“We aren’t stupid. We are grieving. Of the many themes that have emerged over the past seventeen months, this one has been the most consistent. Coming up again and again.”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Meditation & Grief

“Grief, like any other emotion, is a natural part of the human experience. Grief is simply the price of admission for a life that is lived to its fullest and most profound potential. There are only two ‘problems’ with grief: when we resist it and when we fuel it.”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Three Years Later

“Over the last two years, I have had both knees replaced. People ask about my knees all the time... This is in comparison to my grief. When people did (past tense) ask, they never just acknowledged it. They never just moved on. Advice and platitudes flowed like the water of Niagara Falls... Now the well is dry. Everyone has moved on. From my grief. Not my knees. Why can’t people treat my grief like they treat my knees?”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Three Years Later

“There are times when I don't even notice that my grief. There are other times when grief crops up quite startlingly in an excruciatingly painful way... And just like my knees, there are times that grief makes a sound that only I can hear. I just try and ignore it. Throughout all of this – to the world – by all outward appearances in daily life – I am fine. But I am not.”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Three Years Later

“Even though I was in a crowd of people — people who knew me — I never felt more alone and unsupported... People somehow expect those who are grieving to reach out just like people expect those who are contemplating suicide to reach out. Know what? Isolating emotions tend to not work that way. People who are depressed withdraw. People who grieve pull away. People who are suicidal retreat.”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Three Years Later

“Asking, ‘How is your grieving?’ could imply that there is some process to grief. There is no process. Grief, like any other emotion, just is. Asking, ‘How is your grief?’ opens the door for a conversation about the integration of grief.”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Three Years Later

“Months later, as I write this, I find it curious how people tend toward expecting those who are struggling to be forthright with their struggle... It’s like handing a person who is mute some sheet music and then blaming them when they don’t sing.”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Three Years Later

“Let me be clear here on what the issue is. It is not the cards. It is sympathy. Sympathy does nothing for your grieving. It is just some stupid fucking social norm that makes the person expressing it feel all puffed up about what a good person they are.”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Three Years Later

“Here is the truth — I am just like the thousands of grieving people out there. I don’t have a disorder. I am just vocal and unapologetically public about it... People want you to grieve quietly, neatly, and in a way that doesn’t disturb the status quo.”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Three Years Later

“Expect people to not support you and then you can be grateful when they do. Expect people to support you and then you risk being saddened if they don’t. Find steadiness not from the outside but from the inside. Find steadfastness in the power of your grief.”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Three Years Later

“If there’s one thing I want to say to the person who finds this book in their own version of year one, or year three, or year twelve, it’s this:
You don’t have to be finished to be okay.
You don’t have to understand everything to keep going.
You don’t have to let go of the past to embrace what’s here.
You just have to keep coming as you are.
Again.
And again.
And again.
That’s the whole thing.
That’s the whole path.
And for today — just today — that’s enough.”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Five Years Later

“Grief doesn’t end.
That’s the myth I want to let go of once and for all.
It doesn’t finish.
It doesn’t fade neatly.
It doesn’t follow a linear arc with a clean moral at the end.
It changes shape.
It tucks itself into different corners of your life.
It surprises you.
It adapts.”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Five Years Later

“Be prepared for the insincere to scatter like cockroaches… Be prepared for those whom you thought would be there for you to not be there… And be prepared for those whom you hardly know to be there for you with complete dedication.​”
― G. Scott Graham, Come As You Are: Meditation & Grief

“If they aren’t asking for information, what are they asking for?  They are saying they are stuck and can’t gather enough traction to get unstuck.  They are saying that they are not able to choose because they lack the wherewithal to take action.  They need a charge, a spark, an incentive, and they need it from within themselves.  A well-placed why provides this spark. Not”
― G. Scott Graham, Motivational Interviewing Made Easy: A Simple, 5-week Program to Build Motivational Interviewing Skills

“Psychedelic experiences hold the potential to be deeply transformative, guiding individuals toward healing, insight, and personal growth. However, transformation is not an automatic process. It does not occur merely through the ingestion of a substance or the act of journeying—it is cultivated through engagement. True engagement requires an individual to meet the experience with openness, presence,”
― G. Scott Graham, Engagement: The Missing Component in Psychedelic Therapy

“Commands are essential for helping your dog navigate the unique challenges of paddleboarding… For example, ‘STEADY’ encourages stability, while ‘HOLD ON’ alerts them to an imminent shift.”
― G. Scott Graham, SUP with your Pup: A Guide to Paddleboarding with your Dog

“A well-tended fire doesn’t just burn for a night—it provides warmth, light, and sustenance long after it has been carefully maintained. The same is true for psychedelic experiences.”
― G. Scott Graham, Engagement: The Missing Component in Psychedelic Therapy

“Those who develop psychological flexibility and equanimity before their psychedelic journey are better equipped to navigate altered states with clarity, presence, and resilience.”
― G. Scott Graham, Engagement: The Missing Component in Psychedelic Therapy

“Life's true aim is not happiness. We are told otherwise and sold a fleeting dream. Life’s true aim lies in equanimity—in perfect balance. It is a state of being where the relentless chase for happiness ceases, and the resistance against sorrow dissolves. It is a harmonious dance with the present, unburdened by the pursuit or avoidance of things that are ultimately transient.”
― G. Scott Graham, Psychedelic Preparation Workbook: Sixty Days to Engagement