Quotes from Jewel

I learned years later that my gratitude practice actually helped me form new neural pathways. The hippie rituals of positive affirmations are not just baloney. Gratitude doesn't exist only in your mind—you have to feel it in your whole being. Feelings are the shadows of thoughts. When we have negative thoughts, our emotions mirror them with anxiety. You can often see what you are thinking by reverse engineering and studying your feelings.

When angered I ask myself, "If I removed my anger or hurt from this situation and acted out of love and unity—if I acted from my highest self—what would I do now?

Reality wins, and I'd rather see the truth than stay in love with a fantasy.

The stealing began again with carrots, which apparently are the gateway vegetable, because soon it led to all manner of produce theft.

Negative self-criticism is an iron chain that will never let you ascend to real greatness.

I spent a lifetime being small for those closest to me but this is not the woman my son will know

I would try to be as bold as that blue waterfall that had the audacity to liberate itself from stone.

I used my intuition like a weapon; whatever insecurity and weakness I sensed in him, I exploited.

Something my life has taught me is not to see things in black and white. People are neither all good nor all bad.

The person inside is looking for the same thing as their neighbor- freedom, expression, acceptance, love.

Meditation helped me to access the same thing my writing did: my intelligence and my instincts beyond the turmoil that inhabited the forefront of my mind.

So you write to our congressmen With bleeding pens Of the sorrow within And in return they just send Tickets to the latest Tom Hanks show

Engage in a loving archaeological dig back to yourself. Let all that is not yours within you fall away until only your real nature remains.

Don't worry mother, it'll be alright And don't worry sister, say your prayers and sleep right It'll be fine lover of mine It'll be just fine Lend your voices only to sounds of freedom No longer lend you strength to that which you wish to be free from Fill your lives with love and bravery And you shall lead a live uncommon

That's one thing about abuse or trauma—small things will trigger you, but in an actual crisis you often stay quite calm.

I am not from here, my hair smells of the wind and is full of constellations and I move about this world with a healthy disbelief and approach my days and my work with vaporous consequence a touch that is translucent but can violate stone.

But I wanted to figure out how to be a mom without having to figure out how to be a professional on top of it.

I saw all my new mom friends go through a sadness other than postpartum depression: it is grieving the loss of your old self, of who you used to be.

An artist's most valuable asset is individuality.

The successful parents I saw were able to redefine who they were and renegotiate their needs and roles as humans, parents, and partners.

Loving my son has helped me to love myself more.

Parenting is constant readjustment.

Life is about drawing and redrawing who we are and how we behave without shame or judgment.

Happiness does not rely on what you have or who you are. It relies on what you think.