When I finally began to grow into my own power, setting healthy boundaries and ending toxic relationships, it felt like being reborn. The natural cycle of grieving for the past began, but the amputations were clean and healthy. As my new self emerged, the birth pains were magnificent and filled with light.
TDS
There are things to remember about
setting boundaries.
You don't need to overexplain, defend, or debate your
position. Your needs are always valid.
Cheryl Richardson
All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive.
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi
We are each gifted
in a
unique and important way.
It is our privilege and our
adventure to discover
our own special light.
Mary Dunbar
Never be bullied into
silence. Never allow yourself
to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition
of your life, but define yourself.
Harvey Fierstein
This
I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the
individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.
And this I would fight for: The freedom of the mind
to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this
I must fight against: Any idea, religion, or government
which limits or destroys the individual.
John Steinbeck
When you allow a friend or family
member to dump their
anxiety or frustration on you, it not only affects your emotional
and physical well-being, it buys them more time to avoid
dealing with the problem.
Cheryl Richardson
I didn't have to scramble up and
down the ladder from despair to
euphoria anymore, trying to convince myself that life was either
painful and terrible or joyous and wonderful.
The simple truth was that life was both.
Melody Beattie
We have all been placed on
this earth to discover
our own path, and we will never be happy
if we live someone else's idea of life.
James Van Praagh
The people who say you are not
facing
reality actually mean that you are
not facing their idea of reality.
Margaret Halsey
To free us from the
expectations of others, to give us back
to ourselves--there lies the great, singular power of self-respect.
Joan Didion
To be
nobody-but-yourself--in a world which is doing
its best, night and day, to make you everybody else--means
to fight the hardest battle which any human being
can fight; and never stop fighting.
e. e. cummings
An accurate definition of
the self is impossible. You are
more than you realize, more than you can define. And
the more time you spend trying to nail down the definition,
the less time you spend living right now. . . Your past is
not your identity. . . You, living now, is your identity.
George Lawrence-Ell
There comes a time when
you have to stand up and shout: This is me damn it! I look the way I look, think
the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I love! I am a whole complex
package. Take me... or leave me. Accept me - or walk away! Do not try to make me
feel like less of a person, just because I don't fit your idea of who I should
be and don't try to change me to fit your mold. If I need to change, I alone
will make that decision. When you are strong enough to love yourself 100%, good
and bad--you will be amazed at the opportunities that life presents you.
Stacey Charter
People take different
roads seeking fulfillment
and happiness. Just because they're not on
your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.
H. Jackson Browne
They
will say you are on the wrong road, if it is your own.
Antonio Porchi
Why be afraid of what
people will say? Those who
care about you will say, "Good luck!" and those who
care only about themselves will never say
anything worth listening to anyway.
J.Z. Knight
People spend too much time
finding other people
to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not
being what they are capable of being, and not
enough energy putting themselves on the line,
growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.
J. Michael Straczynski
Coming to appreciate your
worth can, in some cases, dramatically improve your circumstances by changing
the choices you make and the actions you take. And as you begin to treat
yourself with more respect, other people begin to do the same, since we
subconsciously "train" others how to treat us through messages we send through
body language, tone of voice, and other subtle cues and behaviors. Discovering
your innate worth and living from that place allows you to make more
constructive choices--to choose the higher roads of life.
Dan Millman
I am willing to put
myself through anything; temporary pain
or discomfort means nothing to me as long as I can see
that the experience will take me to a new level. I am interested
in the unknown, and the only path to the unknown is through
breaking barriers, an often painful process.
Diane Nyad
There are millions of
human beings who live narrow, darkened, frustrated lives--
who live defensively--simply because they take a defensive, doubtful attitude
toward themselves and, as a result, towards life in general. A person
with a poor attitude becomes a magnet for unpleasant experiences.
When those experiences come--as they must, because of his attitude--
they tend to reinforce his poor attitude, thereby bringing more problems, and so
on.
The person becomes an example of self-generating, doom-fulfilling prophecy.
And it's all a matter, believe it or not, of attitude. We get what we expect.
Our outlook on life is a kind of paintbrush, and with it, we paint our world.
It can be bright and filled with hope and satisfaction,
or it can be dark and gloomy--lugubrious.
Earl Nightingale
In order to grow you need to be
sincere and honest with yourself. You
are like anybody else neither better nor worse, just a human being.
Your sincerity and your will to be true are the key elements to your
realization.
Unknown
Most people are always carrying the burden of the past, anticipating
the future, while missing life in the present.
Be a person who dissolves into the present
Be like a boat that flows in time and space
Tishan
Accept everything
about yourself--I mean everything.
You are you and that is the beginning
and the end--no apologies, no regrets.
Clark Moustakas
The individual has
always had to struggle to keep from
being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will
be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price
is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
Friedrich Nietzsche