Al Owski’s Reviews > The Art of Communicating > Status Update

“When a difficulty arises in our relationships and one of us feels resentment or hurt, a good practice to try is called "beginning anew." To begin anew is to look deeply and honestly at ourselves—our past actions, speech, and thoughts and to create a fresh beginning within ourselves and in our relationships with others.”

“Our wounded child is not only us; he or she may represent several generations of ancestors. Our parents and ancestors may have suffered all their lives without knowing how to look after the wounded child in themselves, so they transmitted that child to us. So when we're embracing the wounded child inside us, we're embracing all the wounded children of past generations.”

“Every one of us has a wounded child within who needs our care and love. But we run away from our inner child because we're afraid of the suffering. In addition to listening to others with compassion, we must also listen to the wounded child inside us.”

“When you produce a thought, it bears your signature. It's you who produced that thought, and you are responsible for it. If it's a thought of compassion, forgiveness, non-discrimination, you will continue beautifully, because you are there in it. You are the author of that action. Your speech and your physical actions, both compassionate and violent, also bear your signature.”

“We want to offer the best kind of thinking, the best kind of speech, and the best kind of bodily acts, because those actions are our continuation. When we think, when we speak, when we act, we create, and we are there in our creations. That is the outcome of our being. Our communications will not be lost when our physical bodies are no longer here.”

“Everything we say and do bears our signature. We can't say, "That's not my thought." We're responsible for our own communication. So if it happens that yesterday I said something that wasn't right, I have to do something today to transform it. The French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre said, "Man is the sum of all his actions." The value of our lives depends on the quality of our thinking, our speech, and our action.”

“When you write words full of compassion and forgiveness, you feel freer, ... Even before you mail the letter or send the e-mail or text, you feel better. The person reading your words will also feel your compassion. In the same way, if you speak with anger and violence, if you speak out of a desire to punish, both you and the people who hear your words experience more suffering.”

“a thought that is full of judgment and anger, that thought will immediately poison your body and mind and the people around you.”

“So thinking is already acting. You don't need to say or do anything in order to be acting. To produce a thought is to act. When you produce a thought that is full of understanding, forgiveness, and compassion, that thought will immediately have a healing effect on both your physical and mental health and on those around you.”

“Thinking is already action...it is...powerful energy. Thinking can push you to do or say things that are destructive, or it can create a lot of love. Every thought will bring a fruit, sometimes right away, sometimes later on. When you produce a thought of hate, anger, or despair, that thought is a poison which will affect your body and your mind. A thought of hatred or anger can lead one person to hurt another.”