Quotes, Sayings And Personal Mantras

[Phocus]

Hello!

One of my favorite habits or techniques for staying present is to apply quotes or mantras directly to the challenges that I am facing.  Without this type of direct application I find that quotes tend to just make me feel good for a moment, but don't really have any transformative power...  and that's not what we're looking for

One of my favorites comes from Eckhart Tolle and is: "Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as though you had chosen it."

Many times when I am faced with a challanging situation I will think of this quote and use it to brainstorm different perspectives or refocus my attention on the present moment and taking action on what I have control over.

What are some of your favorite quotes or sayings that you've been able to apply?

 

Some submissions from the community:

Mooji's pointing: "find out who is the one who's seeing ( suffering )"

"When you try to command a spontaneous process you stop it" - Alan Watts

"If there is no enemy within the enemy outside can do us no harm" - African proverb

"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." Frederick Buechner

"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves" Victor Frankl

"When you are perfectly free to feel stuck or not stuck you are unstuck." Alan Watts

"The voice inside your head saying you can't do this is a liar."

"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly until you get it right."

“Give your friends your money and your blood, but don’t justify yourself. Your enemies won’t believe it and your friends won’t need it.”

"I do not fear death; I fear not living fully."  -Wim Hof

"Every man is worth just so much as the things about which he busies himself."  - Marcus Aurilius

"Don't find fault, find a remedy" - Henry Ford

"Don't make a permanent decision on a temporary emotion"

"The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem. Got that?"

"Action it the most important key to any success"

"Say nothing " Rumi

"if you want something, go get it...period" (the Pursuit of Happiness)

"Invest in you" (from a motivational video by Mateusz M)

"Is this true?" and "Can I know this is really true?" 

"The aim of Western psychiatry is to help the troubled individual to adjust himself to the society of less troubled individuals" -Aldous Huxley

"Why Are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you do is for yourself --- and there isn't one."   --- Wei Wu Wei 

"There is no failure, only feedback." - Anthony Robbins

"The fact that we can ponder the infinite cosmos, yet we’re ultimately food for worms." -Jason Silva

"What other people think of me is none of my business" -Wayne Dyer

Edited February 14, 2016 by Phocus

[AnonJohn]

Can you elaborate on that quote a little bit? I'm having trouble applying it to my life. What if it's a situation that I would NEVER choose? If I get fired, I can treat it like I quit. That totally makes sense. But, what if my best friend dies? Why would I ever choose that?

[Phocus]

I think those are the best situation with which to apply that quote because, as you stated, you would never logically chose that situation.  Using the example of a close friend dying, this is of course, a terrible and traumatic thing.  It is also something that you cannot change.  You can only change things that you have control of.  So, imagine, in a fantasy world, why would you chose those circumstances?  Perhaps, your friend gave you good advice that you were never brave enough to follow through on.  Perhaps his death gave you new perspective on what is truly important to you, ect..

Does that make sense?

Think of this statement from the perspective of "nothing is good or bad.  It just is".  This quote helps to strip away our inherent prejudices towards circumstances that we label as "good" or "bad". 

[Ayla]

What works for me quite well, is Mooji's pointing: find out who is the one who's seeing ( suffering ). What I have found, is that deep inside, there is this type of let's call it deep benevolent all encompassing stillness that is not perturbed by anything at all. As you dig deeper and stay present with that, you can feel it's flavor of love....and you begin to trust it and to realize that anything happening to "you" is actually an illusion. Once you learn to trust this force within you, nothing can touch you as it used to. all becomes relative. 

The only "problem" is to switch your perspective, to un-learn your old way of thinking and to just TRUST and not engage with whatever comes towards you. This is done by the deep inner experience that shows you personally that you are all of it: the source, the happening, the experience and the result of that particular issue. 

 

[Phocus]

Yes, agreed.  It is very easy to lose that higher perspective.  That is a great way of gently repointing your Phocus

[Whisper]

I got a couple that I re-read often:

"When you try to command a spontaneous process you stop it." - Alan Watts

"If there is no enemy within the enemy outside can do us no harm" - African proverb

"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." Frederick Buechner

"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves" - Victor Frankl

and another from Alan Watts: "When you are perfectly free to feel stuck or not stuck you are unstuck."

[Rayko]

Two of my current favorites are "The voice inside your head saying you can't do this is a liar." and "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly until you get it right."

[Meriem]

“Give your friends your money and your blood, but don’t justify yourself. Your enemies won’t believe it and your friends won’t need it.” This saying is about altruism, and how you should never explain why you’re doing good to anyone, because the explanation is not needed.

[Systemic]

"I do not fear death; I fear not living fully."  -Wim Hof

"Every man is worth just so much as the things about which he busies himself."  - Marcus Aurilius

[Thomas Taschler]

"Don't find fault, find a remedy" - Henry Ford

I think it's important to focus on finding solutions and creating results instead of being negative and moaning about things you don't like.

[AnonJohn]

36 minutes ago, Thomas Taschler said:

I think it's important to focus on finding solutions and creating results instead of being negative and moaning about things you don't like.

Absolutely. It's important to take responsibility for everything that happens to you, especially if you have some control over it. I've been doing this lately, and find that it's a strong emotional weight to carry. It's still worth it. Empowering.

[Rares]

One of my favorite quites are: "Don't make a permanent decision on a temporary emotion"

"The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem. Got that?"

"Action it the most important key to any success"

[nima]

"Say nothing " Rumi

[Guest]

Good Morning! Awesome thread!

Two of my favorites at the moment are;

"if you want something, go get it...period" (the Pursuit of Happiness)

"Invest in you" (from a motivational video by Mateusz M)

Rares, I really love  "Don't make a permanent decision on a temporary emotion"

 

[Kelley White]

Good Morning.  Thank you, its nice to meet everyone.

I agree Lauren, awesome thread.   I personally am keeping it simple.    When confronted with a limiting belief or emotion these days I am trying to       habituate asking the questions,"Is this true?"  "Can I know this is really true?"  I then try to do the turn around question to find out what my core fear or issue is.   

If I can identify what the core issue is, quite often I can redirect my focus and stop suffering in the moment.   I often find my fear is not based upon truth.  

When I can't identify a causation and I seem incapable of redirecting focus or emotion? 

I have just learned to sit with the emotion; raise my awareness that the state may not be based upon a current reality but an emotional flashback. 

I also use music, film clips, writing, creative projects, to transform negative energy by releasing it in positive versus self defeating/self harming ways which also seems to redirect/assist with mood regulation.

I keep two mantras in my head; Do nothing impulsive; it's not a linear process.

[Guest]

"The aim of Western psychiatry is to help the troubled individual to adjust himself to the society of less troubled individuals"

-Aldous Huxley

 

[Simon Zackrisson]

5 hours ago, Systemic said:

"I do not fear death; I fear not living fully."  -Wim Hof

"Every man is worth just so much as the things about which he busies himself."  - Marcus Aurilius

Fucking love Wim Hof.

I recently read this somewhere:

"When you stand for the rights of one individual, you stand for the rights of every individual."

It hit me rather hard.. Nothing new really but still affected me.

[Avi]

"Why Are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you do is for yourself --- and there isn't one."   --- Wei Wu Wei 

This quote is in a book I am currently reading, The Book of Not Knowing by Peter Ralston. This particular quote speaks to the self in our culture. He describes how our assumptions, beliefs, and conclusions about others and our selves seem to make us believe that this is who we really are. But there isn't a you, it's all made up. The real you lies beneath all of that. The being. I really got some insight into "myself" after reading this part of the book and doing some introspection.   

[nbolt]

1 minute ago, Avi said:

"Why Are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you do is for yourself --- and there isn't one."   --- Wei Wu Wei 

This quote is in a book I am currently reading, The Book of Not Knowing by Peter Ralston. This particular quote speaks to the self in our culture. He describes how our assumptions, beliefs, and conclusions about others and our selves seem to make us believe that this is who we really are. But there isn't a you, it's all made up. The real you lies beneath all of that. The being. I really got some insight into "myself" after reading this part of the book and doing some introspection.   

Really love this quote : )

[Phocus]

1 hour ago, Avi said:

"Why Are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you do is for yourself --- and there isn't one."   --- Wei Wu Wei 

Hah!  Statements like this truly reveal the depth of our dysfunction when taken in earnest.