Everything Happens for a Reason Quotes

“I can see every day that a squirrel's perfectly at home in a world of trees. But imagine taking that squirrel and plunking him down in the middle of the desert. This wonderful animal will suddenly feel depressed, anxious, confused, completely at a loss. There are plenty of animals who make a home in the desert, but not the squirrel.

There's nothing really wrong with that downcast squirrel in the desert. He's perfect. But he's only perfect when he's at home, in a place with lots of trees. In the desert a squirrel is an unhappy misfit.

Now imagine doing something stupid: taking that squirrel to a therapist so he'll feel better... You could do squirrel therapy forever but as long as the squirrel's in the desert, he's going to be miserable. But if you just pick him up and bring him to a place with trees, now he's at home and he's happy.

There are so many people who are miserable because they are squirrels in the desert. They think there's something wrong with them. They endlessly try to fix themselves but the fixing doesn't work. Yet they keep trying because it's hard to face the ways they're not at home in the world. And yet how simple it would be if they could see there's nothing wrong with who they are, there's just something wrong with where they are.

But they can feel more at home than they ever imagined. They just have to look for ways that events in their lives are showing them the way home.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“If you've been fortunate enough to discover that the meaning of what happened to you is that you have something far more to offer than you ever imagined, you have to offer it. Bring it out of yourself and into the world. This isn't easy. It takes trial and error. You might find obstacles to discovering how an artistic talent can best be expressed, for example. Just remember that certainty you felt inside about how you were special. That's real. You have to let it see the light by doing something with it. And don't give up until you do.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“Think about your story in a new way,' the wise person says. 'You've been thinking of it as a loss. Now think of it as a liberation. What happened to you--it actually freed you up. And it didn't just free you up any old way. It freed you from some dead weight of the past so you could find a new home that would bring life to some part of you, maybe the best part of you.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“If only you look, you'll find that right in that hole is something you've desperately needed to complete your journey successfully. And you wouldn't have found it if you hadn't fallen in that hole.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“The bad event gave you the strength you needed in your foundation to make possible the next wonderful thing in your life.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“Some people are able to forgive when they realize that the other person just couldn't help it, because he or she was sick, damaged, or limited somehow.

Some people find forgiveness when they realize the other person has suffered more than they have.

We also find forgiveness when we realize the other person has suffered enough, even if he or she hasn't suffered more than we have.

We forgive when we realize we're safe now.

We forgive when we realize that we don't want to be the kind of person who doesn't forgive.

We forgive when the other person makes up for what he or she has done.

But perhaps the most important reason is that when we don't forgive, we're the ones who are hurt the most.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“If not, you'll just keep falling into holes until you can grasp the gift cosmos keeps on trying to give you.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“tradition is the guru, the person who turns darkness (gu) into light (ru). The guru, in other words, is a teacher.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“People often chase the danger they’re least afraid of to distract them from the part of life that scares them most.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“There is a set of traditions that has had a huge influence on the spirituality of Americans today. I’m talking, of course, about the religious traditions of India, especially Hinduism and Buddhism. For thousands of years, Hinduism has seen life as a classroom. Instead of saying you’re born, you live, you die, Hinduism says you’re born, you learn, and you’re reborn—this is the idea of samsara. Everything you do, think, and feel creates consequences, or karma. The soul learns from this and progresses, or fails to learn and is held back (like a poor learner in school!) until it learns. Of course, at the heart of the Hindu tradition is the guru, the person who turns darkness (gu) into light (ru). The guru, in other words, is a teacher.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“If something happens to me, and if I learn from it, then I instantly become a new species of me. I’ve experienced a form of mini-evolution within myself. A lower form of me has evolved into a slightly higher form of me.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“This makes clear that the lessons you need to learn don’t exist in the events themselves. They come to you through what happened to you, and they come because of what you were needing before that event even happened.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“Most of us don’t listen to the universe unless it shouts at us.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“Once you find a personally compelling answer to the question “Why did this happen to me?” for the first time your attention is taken off the past that you can’t control and focused on your future, which you have some control over.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“The good that comes out of the bad things that happen to you is to help you become your best, most authentic self.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“The reason something happened to you was to make something better in your future. The cosmos worked hard to give you this gift, so you damned well better use it.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“If you've been fortunate enough to discover that the meaning of what happened to you is that you have something far more to offer than you ever imagines, you have to offer it. Bring it out of yourself and into the world. This isn't easy. It takes trial and error. You might find obstacles to discovering how an artistic talent can best be expressed, for example. Just remember that certainty you felt inside about how you were special. That's real. You have to let it see the light by doing something with it. And don't give up until you do.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“Discovering a hidden talent is actually a very big deal. It can save your life, as it did for my mother. It can save your emotional life, giving you the hope and energy to go on, as it did for Josie. It can save the life of the real you, the part of you that's special.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“Now here's the good part. It was the part where Monica told me was the reason her life had seemed to collapse. It was to give her what she needed so she'd didn't feel incomplete and unfulfilled anymore.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“There are many paths you can follow to forgiveness. that was one: Understand that your present is different from your past. Here's another: Focus on how it's hurt you not to forgive yourself and on what you need to be safe.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“It was always to free up some part of themselves that never would've come to light. Now they could burst free. And this part of themselves that was freed pointed directly toward where they would feel at home in the world.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“If you see someone struggling with sadness, anxiety, and negativity, listen to his story. You'll soon see he's living in a world where all he sees are things to blame because he lives without positive meanings for what happened to him. Then only cure is to restore the sense that there is a good reason for everything that happens.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“Knowing there's a reason for what happens also saves us from being filled with blame.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“is bound by pratityasamutpada, the twelve-membered chain of causality. And the first link in this chain is ignorance. Ignorance starts the chain that binds the soul to the cycle of rebirth and suffering. Only when ignorance is overcome (through learning what the events in our lives have to teach us!) can we liberate ourselves from starting the cycle yet one more time and so finally achieve nirvana.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“classroom. Instead of saying you’re born, you live, you die, Hinduism says you’re born, you learn, and you’re reborn—this is the idea of samsara. Everything you do, think, and feel creates”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“Real love is about falling in like.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“What many Christians focus on is a view of the world as full of opportunities for grace.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives

“But you can only give so much of yourself away before you lose yourself.”
― Mira Kirshenbaum, Everything Happens for a Reason: Finding the True Meaning of the Events in Our Lives