Quotes About Self-awareness

Taking an interest in one's own soul requires a certain amount of space for reflection and appreciation.

I think there are certain unimpeded passages, that this is registering in my brain somewhere where the drugs and the bugs don't reach. There's a core of myself I can feel, a hidden center of my identity that won't be sedated or confused or overcome.

The nheart is deceitful above all things, And 4desperately wicked; Who can know it?

It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.

A schlemihl is a schlemihl. What can you make out of one? What can one make out of himself? You reach a point, and Profane knew he had reached it, where you know how much you can and cannot do. But every now and again he got attacks of acute optimism.

Who am I to know my own  motives. But I did foolhardy things.

It takes, unhappily, no more than a desk and writing supplies to turn any room into a confessional. This may have nothing to do with the acts we have committed, or the humors we do go in and out of. It may be only the room--a cube--having no persuasive powers of its own. The room simply is. To occupy it, and find a metaphor there for memory, is our own fault.

A todo el mundo se le dice que escriba acerca de lo que conoce. El problema para muchos de nosotros es que en la juventud creemos saberlo todo o, por decirlo de un modo más útil, con frecuencia desconocemos el alcance y la estructura de nuestra ignorancia, la cual no es sólo un espacio en blanco en el mapa mental de una persona, sino que tiene contornos y coherencia y, por lo que sé, también tiene sus normas".

Metzger flashed her a big wry couple rows of teeth. "Looks don't mean a thing any more," he said. "I live inside my looks, and I'm never sure. The possibility haunts me.

Looking at old photographs makes it hard for me to believe that I was ever that thin physically. And remembering some of the things I did in those days makes it hard to believe that I was ever that thin mentally.

It is so easy to be wrong—and to persist in being wrong—when the costs of being wrong are paid by others.

It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.

I am always conscious of this secret disruption in me

Oh dear, I sometimes think... whatever should I do if anything were to... But, there, thinking's no good to any one—is it, madam? Thinking won't help. Not that I do it often. And if ever I do I pull myself up sharp, "Now, then, Ellen. At it again—you silly girl! If you can't find anything better to do than to start thinking!...

When we don't face our feelings and learn how to release them, each time a situation comes up that is similar to an experience that caused strong feelings in the past, we become "triggered" by all of the old, unresolved feelings, and we have a tendency to respond in a knee-jerk habitual fashion to the new situation instead of finding innovative, healthier ways to respond.

This is the way out of helplessness and hopelessness. By following the thread of the anger back to its original source, and allowing the anger to express freely in a healthy manner, a seeker begins to understand why life appears to be the way it is (hint: we learn our worldview by mimicking someone else's, or we believe what they taught us about ourselves and the world without investigating for ourselves whether it's true or not).

The discovery that some of the behaviors in your family that you thought and felt were wrong or abnormal actually were abnormal is tremendously freeing and validating, and helps you learn to trust yourself. Don't be afraid to ask if something seems normal to someone else. Even though dysfunctional family dynamics are usually well-hidden behind the closed doors of many families, almost everyone experiences them.

The reason that taking care of others doesn't work is that no one knows what another person needs to feel nourished (unless they can tell us clearly and directly, and in dysfunctional families, they usually don't). We end up guessing: "Oh, I think this would help." "It seems to me that he needs that." But we can't guess what would truly nourish another person. He or she may not even know themselves.

But remember that this is a dysfunctional pattern, born of misunderstanding and misinterpretation. We can't know what others truly need, but with a little investigation, we can find out what nourishes us, and place our focus there. Then we become a role model for others – when we see someone nourishing themselves, we tend to allow more space in our lives to do that for ourselves.

Trust yourself. You are the only person who knows what nourishes you. Happy creating! And may the Force be with you.

If a child grows to adulthood without examining the view of life, self, and the world he or she grew up with, it's likely that quite a bit of this early "programming" will still affect the adult's opinion of self and the way in which he or she sees and interacts with the world. This can sometimes place limitations on how well the person copes with life and what they can accomplish.

We can only become enlightened by acknowledging and releasing what weighs us down: the shadow aspect of the psyche that carries the burden of the past.

Eyes that looked out into the world, that took in so cleverly light, shape, and movement--why should it be important what they themselves looked like? The thing is that it was. Not what we see, but how we are seen.

Seul l'homme qui s'est trouvé, l'homme qui coïncide avec lui-même, avec sa vérité intérieure, est un homme libre.