Quotes About Self-discovery

Have you lost your mind? Yep. And now I'm trying to get it back

We're all stuck, a little bit, in the valley between who we want to be and who we are.

And even as I'm telling her what I have done with my life, I realize that I have in fact learned what I am good at, what she told me so very long ago I needed to figure out. I am good at loving people, I have always been good at loving people, and I don't suppose there's any skill better than that. Surely that is what God intended all along for me.

She] felt as if she were both a stranger to herself and more herself than she'd ever been.

Her life had not been long enough for her to know the whole of herself, it had not been long enough or wide.

What's funny is that the idea of popularity - even the use of the word 'popular' - is something that had been mostly absent from my life since junior high. In fact, the hallmark of life after junior high seemed to be the shedding of popularity as a central concern.

No matter how much help you ask for, cultivating these spiritual qualities is something you have to do within yourself, and it requires solitude. So if you feel like locking your door, closing the blinds, and retreating from the world, this is probably a good idea. Sit with the darkness. Allow it to teach you. This is a very brave thing to do.

If you've ever wished for a friend who would love you as you are, appreciate your genius, and make space for your foibles, welcome you when you're funny and shiny and when you're a complete mess—well, I can introduce you to this person. Rather, your meditation practice can. He or she has been there the whole time. You are the one you've been waiting for, as they say.

If I could unhinge myself from myself, attach to bookshelves, sever my tongue, I would watch as it grew back, rejuvenated and ready to speak

We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly. . . spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order.

live accordingly to the truths within yorself

The truth will set you free - but first it may thoroughly irritate you.

I sobbed for the girl, me, the other girl, the other me, and how he was hurting her - me..."the other girl," I said to her. "It's the other girl, Caroline. Don't let her be alone." (154)

I want to be able to be alone, to find it nourishing - not just a waiting.

I'm only interested in people engaged in a project of self-transformation.

When others witness or comment on abusive behaviors, the little voice that the upscale abused wife once heard inside her and ignored or muffled becomes amplified. Slowly she starts to recognize that she must stop enduring the abuse. . . . each woman comes to grips with her situation at her own pace. However, talking to others is key to her growing capacity to recognize and label her experiences, reclaim herself, target important turning points, and ultimately leave her tormentor.

Sometimes the only way to stay sane is to go a little crazy.

Sometimes when I am not expecting it, when I let down my guard for a moment, allowing the thousands, the millions of little synapses in my head to work their will, conveying to me just what it is that I cannot bear to know, cannot bear to be known, I do remember.

I thought of the analyst Winnicott's observation: 'It is a joy to be hidden but disaster not to be found'.

I knew myself right down to the blood and the bone and the breath that were singing there loud and clear and wild in the wind.

Tune In to What Turns You On. "This is often very poignant," says Karen, "because a lot of women say, 'I don't know.' It is very frightening for them. They don't know if they care about anything.

Some walks you have to take alone.

As long as you can find yourself, you'll never starve.

But more words tumble out. 'You're a painter. You're a baker. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never take sugar in your tea. And you always double-knot your shoelaces.' Then I dive into my tent before I do something stupid like cry.