Quotes from Sue Patton Thoele

One of the quickest ways to become exhausted is by suppressing your feelings.

Abundance is, in large part, an attitude.

Expecting people to read your mind hardly ever gets you what you desire.

Because we fear other people's reactions and don't know how to respond, we allow them to violate our limits and boundaries.

Sometimes the waters of our spirits are churned and murky, and it is difficult to tap the reservoirs of our innate wisdom and knowledge. But the waters will settle as we do. Quietly and gently encourage yourself to go inside. Clarity will come.

If I could identify one core problem about the world, it's that we've been taught to distrust ourselves. SHAKTI GAWAIN

We all need to feel understood and connected to ourselves and to others.

If you're about to become a stepmother or are currently filling that role, you are gambling that the love you've found and the strength and wisdom that you've acquired will see you through.

In order to stop giving ourselves away and have fair and open relationships with others, we must learn how to communicate our limits and boundaries honestly and effectively.

We aren't to blame for our fears, but it is up to us to decide how we'll handle them. We are responsible for choosing ways that lead us toward making the most of this gift of life.

When we become response-able—that is, when we learn to choose our responses freely and consciously—we are free to build a life of continuing growth and increasing happiness.

Teasing is veiled hostility and is almost never funny, unless the teasee has openly agreed to relate that way.

Anger, if not allowed to fester and grow out of proportion, is healthy, like a smoke alarm that if heeded can prevent all sorts of damage.

An angry frontal attack puts even the most invulnerable person on the defensive.

To most women, friendship is not a luxury; it is an essential part of their being.

Lack of forgiveness gives others power over us. Withholding forgiveness simply allows another person to have control over our well-being.

Often illness is an expression of feelings repressed.

However, if criticism and humility aren't balanced with appreciation for things we do well and our willingness to learn, we can become critical, judgmental, and stress-filled.

Pace yourself in your work and commitments. Nobody is indispensable. And when you get sick, honor your body by giving it the rest and medical attention that it's asking for.

We need to accept our anger, fear, or whatever undisclosed feelings we have, no matter how socially unacceptable they seem.

It's so important to break the pattern of looking outside ourselves for self-esteem.

Unresolved grief is created when we don't allow ourselves to work through feelings as they arise. If we deny having painful feelings or put them on a shelf, they don't simply evaporate. Rather, unresolved feelings gnaw at our energy, prey on our emotions, and generally debilitate us.

Being aware of our feelings sounds easy, but it's not because many of us spend our entire lives pushing feelings aside as we try to please others.

Being able to choose to act differently, even while feeling the old way, may be the most liberating growth you can accomplish.