Quotes from Melody Beattie

Choosing to take responsibility for ourselves and for the consequences our choices create looks like hard work, but it really sets us free.

Letting go helps us to to live in a more peaceful state of mind and helps restore our balance. It allows others to be responsible for themselves and for us to take our hands off situations that do not belong to us. This frees us from unnecessary stress.

I used to be afraid of pain, didn't take a lot of risks, especially in love. I'm not as afraid anymore. I'm more spontaneous, more likely to say what I think.

What do you do when life blindfolds you and spins you around? We think it's our fault, that we're to blame, when really we should be focused on being gentle with ourselves.

Resentments are hardened chunks of anger. They loosen up and dissolve with forgiveness and letting go.

Money is not evil. There is no scarcity, except in our mind and attitudes. And what we believe we deserve will be about what we shall receive.

The surest way to make ourselves crazy is to get involved in other people's business, and the quickest way to become sane and happy is to tend to our own affairs.

Much of the time, the things we feel guilty about are not our issues. Another person behaves inappropriately or in some way violates our boundaries. We challenge the behavior, and the person gets angry and defensive. Then we feel guilty.

We can trust ourselves to know when our boundaries are being violated.

We are on a very rich emotional and physical journey on this planet.

Striving for excellence is a positive quality. Striving for perfection is self-defeating.

We don't have to do it any better than we can - ever. Do our best for the moment, then let it go. If we have to redo it, we can do our best in another moment, later.

Live your life from your heart. Share from your heart. And your story will touch and heal people's souls.

Each moment in time we have it all, even when we think we don't.

Live your life fom your heart. Share from your heart. And your story will touch and heal people's souls.

I used to spend so much time reacting and responding to everyone else that my life had no direction. Other people's lives, problems, and wants set the course for my life. Once I realized it was okay for me to think about and identify what I wanted, remarkable things began to take place in my life.

Each moment in time we have it all, even when we think we don't.

I used to spend so much time reacting and responding to everyone else that my life had no direction. Other people's lives, problems, and wants set the course for my life. Once I realized it was okay for me to think about and identify what I wanted, remarkable things began to take place in my life.

Furthermore, worrying about people and problems doesn't help. It doesn't solve problems, it doesn't help other people, and it doesn't help us. It is wasted energy.

Codependents are reactionaries. They overreact. They under-react. But rarely do they act. They react to the problems, pains, lives, and behaviors of others. They react to their own problems, pains, and behaviors.

the plan will happen in spite of us, not because of us.

You don't blast a heart open," she said. "You coax and nurture it open, like the sun does to a rose.

The lesson I was learning involved the idea that I could feel compassion for people without acting on it.

We decided that sooner or later you had to learn to live without almost everybody, at least for a while. Even people you didn't think you could live without." p 167 love always found itself again.