Telling a true story about personal experience is not just a matter of being oneself, or even or finding oneself. It is also a matter of choosing oneself.
Harriet LernerRead
It is not fear that stops you from doing the brave and true thing in your daily life. Rather, the problem is avoidance. You want to feel comfortable so you avoid doing or saying the thing that will evoke fear and other difficult emotions. Avoidance will make you feel less vulnerable in the short run but, it will never make you less afraid.
Interpretation
Fear often stems from avoidance, which prevents us from facing challenging situations.
In this quote, Harriet Lerner emphasizes that it is not the fear itself that keeps us from acting courageously; rather, it is our tendency to avoid uncomfortable situations. While avoiding challenges may provide temporary comfort, it ultimately perpetuates fear rather than alleviating it, suggesting that confronting our fears is essential for personal growth and bravery.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about overcoming fears.
Telling a true story about personal experience is not just a matter of being oneself, or even or finding oneself. It is also a matter of choosing oneself.
Those of us who are locked into ineffective expressions of anger suffer as deeply as those of us who dare not get angry at all.
If we only listened with the same passion that we feel about being heard.
An intimate relationship is one in which neither party silences, sacrifices, or betrays the self and each party expresses strength and vulnerability, weakness and competence in a balanced way.
Although the connections are not always obvious, personal change is inseparable from social and political change.
Insurrection is the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.
That's why I want to change Mississippi. You don't run away from problems - you just face them.
After the war, they took Army dogs and rehabilitated them for civilian life. But they turned soldiers into civilians immediately, and let em sink or swim.
You have spent many lives and much treasure to bring freedom to many lands that were reluctant to receive it. And here you have a people who won it by themselves and need only the help to preserve it.
… he remained restrained and strangely composed. It was a composure born of extreme provocation. It stemmed from a lucidity that lies beyond rage.
The thing that hurts, that became anger, was when I realized that if you tell the truth, in a country that says you’re entitled to tell the truth, you get your face slapped and you get put out of work.
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