‘We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.’
Pema Chödrön
Blog
Thought for March 2022
‘According to Bruce Tift, ”Sanity is a counter-instinctual process.” And at first, it certainly feels counter-instinctual to turn towards what is painful and terrifying. Shouldn’t I be running in the opposite direction? But the counter-instinctual move turns out to be tremendously empowering. If we can face our worst fears, then maybe they won’t continue to secretly run our life. And where does real confidence come from if not from knowing that we can handle whatever experience comes our way?’ Tami Simon
Thought for february 2022
‘To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.’
Pema Chödrön
Thought for January 2022
‘What fascinates me so much is that every time we decide to be grateful, it will be easier to see new things to be grateful for. Gratitude begets gratitude, just as love begets love.’
Henri Nouwen
ThOught for december 2021
‘Although darkness has often been associated with fear and evil, I would like to offer another face of darkness….. This darkness is not one we need protection from, but rather is a darkness we are invited to enter. It is a bit like standing before the hidden face of the divine, longing for entrance yet fully aware that we know so little about the one we call God.’ Macrina Wiederkehr
Thought for November 2021
‘Climate change is sometimes misunderstood as being about changes in the weather. In reality, it is about changes in our very way of life.’ Paul Polman
Thought for oCtober 2021
‘Observe how the mind labels the present moment and how this labelling process, this continuous sitting in judgment, creates pain and unhappiness. By watching the mechanics of the mind, you step out of its resistance patterns, and you can then allow the present moment to be. This will give you a taste of the state of inner freedom from external conditions, the state of true inner peace.’ Eckhart Tolle
Thought for September 2021
“Real safety is your willingness to not run away from yourself.” Pema Chödrön
Thought for August 2021
‘There is a universal need for some kind of ‘sabbath time’ in our lives: a time to withdraw from the relentless action of our routine commitments so as to understand better the nature of our daily treadmill; a stepping out of the parade so as to see it more clearly from a distance; a moment of difference in order to explore the sameness of the repetitions of our lives………..During a real vacation, we make room for dreaming, for rediscovering the kernel of our being, for playing safely with bare feet……sabbath-time is for a lot of re-routing, for some fairly urgent u-turns and for finding a way out of the many newly discovered cul-de-sacs we have long been lost in.’
Daniel O’Leary
Thought for July 2021
‘To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.’ Pema Chödrön
Susannah Izzard Psychotherapy 