The Five Gifts Quotes

“In uncharted territory, we need new thinking, new ways of processing intense emotions, and new behavioral choices.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Patience allows you to shift attention in a positive way.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“The second gift––patience––helps us deal with not knowing how long this is going to last.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Breathing is our primary nonverbal language. Sharp, uneven breaths convey a message of stress even though someone might insist she is perfectly all right.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Our capacity to disregard and discount viscerally painful experiences is so ingrained that we have come to believe that “moving forward” means not allowing ourselves to be moved at all.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“The unrealistic belief that we are somehow entitled to go through life unmoved by other people’s suffering further limits our ability to cope with our own.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“God never closes a door without opening a window. But we have to look for it.” – Sarah Mahoney”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“When someone we know is hurting, it’s our instinct to want them to get better––first, for themselves, and also because our inability to assist leaves us feeling helpless.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“There is a price for forgetting and remembering. Forgetting as a form of escape deprives us of what the Five Gifts can offer––humility, patience, empathy, forgiveness, and growth.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“You are like a baby bird that has fallen out of the nest, too weak and fragile to fly back. You need to learn how to feed yourself soul vitamins so that you can regain your energy and the will to live fully.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Getting angry because you cannot will yourself to push through it at your old pace will sabotage the pace of healing. Patience gives you the grace to slow down and let your soul catch up in its own time and in its own way.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Whatever the circumstance, there are seeds of meaning, even to our very last breath.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Mother Earth is always giving, even if it’s a lesson. She is always giving.” –Tiokasin Ghosthorse”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“The gift of empathy opens us up when the tendency to shut down and turn away from the world is often at its greatest.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Focus on what you have instead of what you don’t have. It’s a gorgeous day. I live in the United States of America. I have freedom. I can go to work. Nothing lasts and this, too, will pass.” -- Chellie Campbell”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“I get a kick out of people who talk like it only happened to them,” says lawyer Denis Kelly. “I wonder, ‘Didn’t you notice that everybody else is going through it?”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Rebuilding emotional safety while remaining physically present in an environment that once proved destructive and continues to be potentially dangerous is a complex process that takes time––and the second gift of patience.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“What is important is remembering that we are here on this planet to surrender, have patience, and allow ourselves to love and be loved. Crises help us to learn these things.”--Lynn Robinson”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Just as we do physiologically, emotional toxicity is best released daily. We have to regularly release old feelings and disturbing thoughts that are holding us back.” --Dr. Anne Redelfs”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Moving forward requires us to reframe our basic assumptions about life.
Moving forward” does not mean that we heal in a linear, sequential way.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Moving forward requires us to reframe our basic assumptions about life.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“We can plan our work and work our plan; however, being organized and methodical will not protect us from the unexpected.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“There is no “new normal” because becoming habituated to severe pain is neither “normal” nor healthy.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Like a Chinese finger puzzle made of woven straw, finding relief requires us to relax rather than pull in order to gain release.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Empathy connects us to another person’s experience without judgment.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Heading into any one-year anniversary, our emotional climate shifts. We enter a new season of the heart.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Disasters make us aware that the life force within us needs tending daily. This is why we are here.” – Dr. Anne Redelfs”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Catastrophic events serve a higher purpose.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“It may not be elegant but it’s true: There is no place for bullshit in a disaster zone.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes

“Like breaking a leg, a serious injury to the psyche often gets us benched while the regular game of life goes on. It may seem strange that forgiving ourselves for having such perfectly human reactions is harder than forgiving whatever caused them.”
― Laurie Nadel, The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes