Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family Quotes

“Just like a garden that flourishes best under certain conditions, your home operates more smoothly when the emotional climate is well thought out. Rather than simply reacting to each crisis and circumstance as it arises, setting an emotional climate gives you a head start in fending off potential sources of stress and conflict. It helps you respond to life rather than react to it.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“Let’s be honest. Being part of a family is a privilege and certainly rewarding, but it can also be a little difficult, even when things are going well.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“Your home is your haven, an escape from the outside world. When you allow too much of the craziness from the outside to enter your home, you eliminate, or at least reduce, a potential source of peace.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“People who learn to not sweat the small stuff with family and around the home have an enormous edge in life. They expend far less energy being irritated and frustrated and have more left over for having fun and being productive and loving. The energy that used to be spent being “stressed out” is now focused on creativity and the creation of joyful experiences and memories.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“Life is a practice and what you practice grows like a seedling that gets water and sunlight. What you practice grows stronger.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“He chuckles at all the people he knows who have taken out bank loans to travel to exotic places like Europe but who have never seen a single state park right here near home.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“A failure to live from the heart creates a great deal of internal conflict, which in turn encourages you to become short-tempered, easily bothered, and reactive. Deep down, you know what is true for you, what kind of life you want to be living, and what type of person you want to be.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“My guess is that if you can be more forgiving of your own outbursts and those of others, the downs you experience and your tendency to sweat the small stuff at home will lessen substantially.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“Happy people know that regardless of what happened yesterday, last month, years ago—or what might happen later today, tomorrow, or next year—now is the only place where happiness can actually be found and experienced.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“Living in the present simply means living life now, with your attention fully engaged in this present moment, not allowing your mind to carry you away to experiences removed from this moment.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“Running late makes us feel stressed out and encourages us to sweat the small stuff!”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“If you want to have an effective, loving experience of family, you must learn to be patient and to not let the little things drive you crazy and take over your life. There are certainly enough difficult things to deal with regarding family and home life. So, the truth is, if you sweat the small stuff at home, you’re probably setting yourself up to be a nervous wreck. To me, this is a very important topic to cover. The stakes are high—the harmony in your home, even your own sanity.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“Life’s minor annoyances can become kindling to a fire, and crisis can become the melting point for many not knowing where to turn for help.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“Living from your heart means that you choose a life and a lifestyle that are true for you and your family. It means you make important decisions because they resonate with your heart and your own values, and not necessarily with those of others. Living from your heart means that you trust your own instincts more than the pressures from advertising or the expectations of society, neighbors, and friends.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“A bigger problem, I believe, than a outburst is the way we beat ourselves up after the fact. We tell ourselves what bad people we are, or what a bad job we’re doing at home. We feel guilty and fill our minds with negativity and self-pity. Sadly, this self-defeating inner talk doesn’t accomplish anything positive—and may even actually encourage us to repeat the very behavior we are upset about by keeping our attention and focus on the problem.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“Protecting and respecting your own privacy is a statement to yourself and others that you value yourself and your own peace of mind.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“In addition, you’ll discover that when you’re not running late you’ll be able to enjoy rather than rush through the different things you do each day. Even simple, ordinary events can be great fun when you’re not in such a hurry.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“The simple recognition that being alone is thought of as positive, rather than as negative, makes it easier for all of us to be sensitive to the noise, activity, and chaos levels that are occurring at any given moment. We have learned to sense when one of us needs a quieter environment or the space to be alone.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“Your emotional environment is primarily made up of things like noise levels, the speed of activity (is everyone rushing around like a chicken with its head cut off?), the respect of one another, and the willingness (or lack of willingness) to sit still and listen.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“Just like a garden that flourishes best under certain conditions, your home operates more smoothly when the emotional climate is well thought out. Rather than simply reacting to each crisis and circumstance as it arises, setting an emotional climate gives you a head start in fending off potential sources of stress and conflict. It helps you respond to life rather than react to it. When trying to determine the ideal emotional environment for yourself and/or your family, there are several important questions to ask yourself: What type of person are you? What type of environment do you enjoy and thrive in? Do you wish your home were more peaceful? These types of questions are critical in order to set the optimal emotional climate.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“The way to overcome this particular hurdle is to begin to understand how much being listened to is valued by the people we love. When someone genuinely listens to us, it feels as though we are heard and loved. It nourishes our spirits and makes us feel understood. On the other hand, when we don’t feel listened to, our hearts sink. We feel as though something is missing; we feel incomplete and dissatisfied.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life

“Listening is almost like a “magic pill” that is virtually guaranteed to produce results.”
― Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Daily Responsibilities from Taking Over Your Life