Be Not Afraid of Love Quotes

“We deserve to feel the fullness of our feelings without self-destruction, scrutiny, and shame.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“On one hand, the initial effects of numbness protected me after the assault because the wound was so raw. On the other hand, I became dependent on the comfort and began to manipulate numbness to my will.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“Denial is fragmentation; denial is desperate prayer.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“Denial masquerades as an accomplice to the expansiveness of numbness, but in fact it endeavors to break us into shards of our truth.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“The excuses became an armor that pushed away the pain, but painful feelings do not relent even when faced with brute force.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“I learned from the desert that my numbness did not illuminate how much or how little I cared, nor how deeply or shallowly I loved.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“I thought that my numbness was an incapacity for feeling, a carelessness, and a reflection of a shallow form of love.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“Numbness is an initiation that invites all our emotions to travel at their own sacred time.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“Numbness does not have to be a blockage, especially if we honor its impermanence by not attempting to shorten or prolong it.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“Numbness is a compelling stage of wisdom on its own, and it offers an expansiveness that prepares us for the abundance of our feelings.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“I was simultaneously disturbed by my subdued emotions and terrified to feel anything more.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“It seemed as if I were being watched over, and the subtle hiss of the cracking earth was telling me something very simple and very true: Open the space within you, because once you feel everything, you will let it all go.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“Every feeling I had been avoiding for the past year bubbled up in this “empty” space, somehow giving me full and unabashed permission to feel.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“I felt hollow on the inside and convinced myself that at least I was loved, at least I was loved, at least I was loved. Except I was not. Not even by me.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“I dedicated myself to taking care of him and made it my sole purpose to be compassionate toward his rage.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“I was steeped so deep in shame, and ironically, the only thing that could ease my shame was the insecure and fragmented promise of being “loved” by him”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“We were addicted to the turbulent cycle, and we were fixated on looking at each other to avoid looking at ourselves.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“Our addiction was fueled by our fears of scarcity, heartbreak, and neglect.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“We romanticized our addiction and misnamed it “passion,” and in doing so manifested a toxic codependent relationship.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“We thought we could not live without each other, but after a while that kind of living does not feel like living at all.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“We fed insatiable parts of each other’s spirits because we had forgotten how to nourish our own.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“We fed fuel to the flickering of our twin flame, and whenever
one of us was ready to let the flame die, the other would reignite it.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“We had the kind of relationship that
was intoxicating and irresistible, and we had shared a comfort that felt easy
to return to.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“Anger, like numbness, is another sacred protector of our survival. It is a loving act to protect yourself, a loving at to resist harm, and a loving act to allow yourself the sacred breath of anger.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“The excuses became an armor that pushed away he pain, but painful feelings do not relent even when faced with brute force. They linger in the ether and visit you, whether you are ready or not to confront them. Denial masquerades as an accomplice to the expansiveness of numbness, but in fact it endeavors to break us into shards of our truth. By drawing enemy lines, denial is a refusal of our entireties. Denial is fragmentation; denial is desperate prayer.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“it can be an act of love to confront somebody when we feel betrayed by them if we are transparent and centered in our intention to express ourselves, and not focused on punishing the other person or replicating harm. when we believe that a good or perfect world is one that has rid itself of anger or sadness or death, we become fearful of the radical teachings within these natural experiences and emotions.”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection

“we must learn to establish firm boundaries within these virtual worlds that encourage us to consume our own suffering”
― Mimi Zhu, Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection