What if THIS is Heaven? Quotes

“If you have trouble accessing your true feelings about a choice, try flipping a coin. Notice your gut reaction to the outcome of the toss—if you feel a positive response, go with that option. If your gut clenches, choose a different option.”
― Anita Moorjani, What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth

“If this were actually a gift from the universe, what would it be here to teach me?”
― Anita Moorjani, What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth

“So my biggest message (inspired by both my NDE and the life and teachings of my dear friend) is to live your life as an exercise in creativity, as if every discovery, every artistic exploration, matters in the cosmic tapestry of life—because it does. Follow your heart as you exuberantly combine the riot of colors the universe lays before you to make your life into your own masterpiece. You may be surprised by your creation. As when we listen to or play beautiful music, our goal is not to get to the end of the piece. The point is to enjoy the melodious, joyous journey the music takes us on, including the very first note and every single one that comes after it.”
― Anita Moorjani, What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth

“Even the word 'unconditional' is superfluous, because love, by its true definition, is unconditional. 'Conditional love' is an oxymoron -- a contradiction in terms. As soon as we put a condition on love, it become something else entirely.... unconditional love is a state of being, not a emotion. It means it has no opposite. Human love is an emotion, and as with all other emotions, it's part of duality. An opposite emotion, such as fear or hate, balances it out. But unconditional love just IS. It's not one side of the coin -- it's the WHOLE coin.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“The best way out of pain is to go through it. That's where the real gold lies. This means first recognising that the pain's there, and then accepting it. You acknowledge its presence and allow yourself to truly feel it. You own it. Pain is never without gift. Above all else, pain gives us the empathy to better understand others who are also going through loss, grief and suffering. These experiences actually make us more human - and more divine.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“These days, when the popular belief seems to be that "a positive attitude creates a positive reality", those of us going through pain and anguish deal with more than just our own suffering. We also have to deal with the attitudes of those around us who insist we stay positive. While it's natural to feel some really hard emotions when dealing with pain and loss, a significant segment of our society feels uncomfortable with it. If we follow the supposedly enlightened way of thinking, we are discouraged from having an authentic experience. We are led to believe that if we feel pain, we are failing in some way.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“True, authentic, unconditional love means wanting for others what they want for themselves, regardless of whether it goes against what we want for ourselves in the relationship. So we need to set our partners free to be who they are, not expect them to contort themselves to fit our ideas of who we want them to be. The real test is to ask ourselves, Does this relationship support freedom, or does it feel like bondage? We need to be honest with ourselves when we answer. Relationships based on unconditional love are freeing. Those couples are together because they choose to be together, not because they feel trapped.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“Remember, your only work is to love yourself, value yourself, and embody this truth of self-worth and self-love so that you can be love in action. That is true service, to yourself and to those who surround you. Realizing how loved and valued you are is what healed your cancer. This same knowledge is what will help you to create a life of heaven here on earth. You are serving no one when you get lost in the problems of the world. So the only question you need to ask when you are feeling defeated or lost is, "Where am I not loving myself? How can I value myself more?”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“I know I am taking responsibility for my own health when . . . I welcome information from both healthcare professionals and friends and family members with gratitude for their expertise and concern, without feeling overwhelmed or obligated to take any particular course of action offered. I can access my guidance system to assess what feels right for me at any given time, as opposed to letting fear influence my decisions. I recognize my body as a barometer for the state of my mental, emotional, and spiritual health (along with my physical health), and I am grateful for its lessons and its guidance.”
― Anita Moorjani, What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth

“I use this method with just about every choice I make these days, including deciding which speaking engagement to accept if the dates overlap, or even whether to accept a new project. Before I commit to anything, I imagine myself in each situation, and then I accept only the ones that bring me a feeling of joy, passion, or purpose—the ones that make me happiest. “Most of us are taught to evaluate choices by analyzing with our minds, like making lists of the pros and cons for each choice, and then choosing the option with the longest list of pros. But even if you go with that, how do you feel doing it? Does it make your heart sing? Does it fill you with passion? Or are you filled instead with anxiety, waiting for it to be over, instead of looking forward to doing it?”
― Anita Moorjani, What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth

“How does this choice make me feel? Do I feel strong and empowered at the thought of a life journey with this option, or does considering it make me fearful and weak? How do I feel about death itself? Am I filled with a sense of dread, or am I at peace with death, seeing it as a natural course for life to take? “In each case, I’d observe what emotions each option triggers, and then I would go with the choices that make me feel the most empowered, the most hopeful, the happiest. And I wouldn’t worry whether my choices would offend those who are supporting me because truly, each of us needs to be surrounded by those who love us, empower us, and will support our choices. After all, your life and your health are about you.”
― Anita Moorjani, What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth

“When I was in the other realm, where the layers upon layers of my values and beliefs were stripped away and I was left facing the truth of who I am at my core, I learned that two primary forces—love and fear—had been driving all my behaviors. One or the other of these two forces was behind every single action I ever took, and I could clearly see that I’d in fact spent most of my life being driven by fear, not love. I understood with a sudden stunning clarity that to transform my life, whatever I said or did from that point on would need to come from a place of love instead of fear.”
― Anita Moorjani, What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth

“Your only work is to love yourself, value yourself, and embody this truth of self-worth and self-love so that you can be love in action. That is true service, to yourself and to those who surround you.”
― Anita Moorjani, What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth

“when you believe in yourself and are in touch with your own inner guidance system, the right guru, teacher, or healer will come to you at the right time, with the answer you need in that moment. And”
― Anita Moorjani, What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth

“Negative thoughts don’t make us sick; not loving ourselves for who we truly are has a much greater affect on our health.”
― Anita Moorjani, What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth

“I take responsibility for the world that I have helped to create, not blaming others for how they may have contributed to the imbalances in that world. Instead I focus on helping to restore that balance, knowing that this will inspire others to have the courage to do the same. Chapter”
― Anita Moorjani, What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth

“By not loving ourselves,” I continued, “we are denying the part of God that expresses itself through us!”
― Anita Moorjani, What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth

“only work is to love yourself, value yourself, and embody this truth of self-worth and self-love so that you can be love in action. That is true service, to yourself and to those who surround you.”
― Anita Moorjani, What If This Is Heaven?: How Our Cultural Myths Prevent Us from Experiencing Heaven on Earth

“Look back on some past painful experiences, and try to identify some things you gained - both large and small - from these experiences. Feel grateful for these gifts.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“If you are having difficulty getting to a place of joy, start with acceptance for where you are right now. After acceptance, reach for finding peace with your current situation. From peace, it becomes easier to step into a place of gratitude, and from gratitude you can more easily get to joy. Joy comes as a result of having extreme gratitude and appreciation for the state of our lives in the present moment.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“When you feel fear and negativity, don't fight the feelings or judge yourself for having them. Instead, allow yourself to acknowledge these emotions and feel them fully so you can move through them without getting stuck.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“Fear of disappointing others is one of the ways we lose ourselves and our authenticity. We try to meet the expectations of others instead of allowing ourselves to be who we are.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“Teach our sons to treat women the way we want our daughters to be treated, instead of attempting to control our daughters and then blaming them when they're disrespected or mistreated by men.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“What's wrong with having 'typical' feminine qualities? They are some of your greatest strengths! You shouldn't need to become more like a man to succeed in this world. This is the mistake we make, both as men and as women, and it's one of the big reasons why our world is so imbalanced. We've bought into the myth that feminine qualities are weaker qualities and that we need to bury them in order to succeed at a career - when actually, they are anything but weak, and they deserve respect. Both masculine and feminine are needed to make a healthy whole.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“Grief is difficult enough to deal with, but guilt adds a whole other layer that complicates the entire grieving process.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“When you beat yourself up and judge your past actions as wrong, remind yourself that you did the best you could do at the time, considering what you then knew or felt.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“As we constantly judge and compare, we are always making choices. We believe that some choices are better than others when they make us, and those around us, happier. And certainly, some choices do seem to serve us better than others. Learning which choices serve us best is how we negotiate life.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“Contrasts and differences are necessary to create what we see as reality. We call this duality. We can perceive something on in contrast with something else.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“If you're going to lose anyone's support because you want to follow your own heart, then they aren't the right person to support you through this journey. It is so important that the people you have around you right now support you for who you are, not because you are doing what they say.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?

“What I've learned is that when people say that I should do this or that, they may be speaking from their own place of fear. What they are really saying without realising it is that this is what they would do if they were in my situation, and so it would bring them peace of mind if I took their advice.”
― Anita Moorjani, What if THIS is Heaven?