A Weekend to Change Your Life Quotes

“Retreat is a form of pause—it is a time apart in solitude, a precious space in which we can see our world in a different light—acknowledge the grief, celebrate the gifts, and honor our own unique spirit without worrying about how others see us or what jobs still have to be done. For me, retreat is a time to endure suspense; find, not seek; relish what comes by chance; repair body and soul; wait patiently; and live into the questions. It is a time to get acquainted with silence—that friend we’ve kept at a distance; a time to be open to the spaciousness of a day; a time to live on the other side, in another world, where spirit, deep thought, and a new kind of wonder can flourish. Above all, retreat is a time to honor all that we have experienced and the way it affects our hearts. Webster’s dictionary defines “retreat” as the “act or process of withdrawal . . . a receding from a position” to a place that affords peace, privacy, and security. But I prefer Jennifer Louden’s assertion that retreat is “an act of self-nurturing, a radical leap into the hallowed halls of selfhood.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“I’ve come to see that personal changes of any sort, big or small, can put our bodies and spirits in a state of shock. Left unprocessed, this shock sets down roots that wrap themselves around our souls and inevitably leave us with the ache.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“When we are stuck, choice is threatening because it implies change.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“We knew better than to ask when they would return. They would simply be away until the grief they felt had been processed and the mourning concluded. Shakespeare, too, knew the logic of this when he said: “He who lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend.” And yet our culture tells us to cut our losses—say goodbye to the old and get on with the new as quickly as possible—no use crying over spilt milk—what’s done is done. How wonderfully efficient and productive all this sounds!”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“We need not spend another moment being strangers in our skin.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“They are searching for purpose, to dream again, to be present in their lives, to regain their confidence. Some just want to have fun, to escape tedious routine, to break out of their ruts.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“Right. The pause—that’s what we forget. How can we cope with anything if we don’t take at least a moment to pause?”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“But I wasn’t prepared to handle the power shift, or my brand-new role as bit player. So I took to retreating to the bedroom to hide my awkwardness. I had learned long ago that the Chinese character for “conflict” is two women under the same roof, and regardless of my own discomfort, I was determined to have none of that.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“We are all sisters in this struggle to re-evaluate our routines and rules, and we need to encourage each other to take more risks. As T. S. Eliot once said, “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“All I knew for sure was that I was tired and empty.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“The soft side of me had been buried by a culture that insists we do rather than be, and I didn’t much enjoy the life I was leading.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“Shakespeare, too, knew the logic of this when he said: “He who lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“I was living on foreign soil, and I instinctively knew that only if I processed the grief that always accompanies change could I regain my equilibrium. The more change we have in our lives, the more transitions and pain with which we have to contend. The little and big endings we endure all leave wounds that must be healed, and who can ever tell how long this will take?”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“our failure to give ourselves the proper time and space to honor the transitions that life doles out to us.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“Woman must come of age herself. She must find her true center alone. She must become whole.” ANNE MORROW LINDBERGH An”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay. In this little book, Hay explains how negative emotions and high anxiety frequently produce pain—the body’s way of telling us to change our patterns and live differently.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“It’s a weakness to just sit and wait for life to come to you.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“single women who wonder if they have missed something by not getting married.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People

“All I knew for sure was that I was tired and empty. The soft side of me had been buried by a culture that insists we do rather than be, and I didn’t much enjoy the life I was leading.”
― Joan Anderson, A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of Being All Things to All People