Whatever terrible things may have happened to you, only one thing allows them to damage your core self, and that is continued belief in them.
Martha BeckRead
Indecision may come from an instinctive hunch that there's more you need to know - which means it's time to learn everything you can about the pros and cons of each option. You can continue on this track, however, only as long as you're unearthing genuinely new information.
Interpretation
Indecision often signals the need for more knowledge before making a choice.
Martha Beck emphasizes that feeling unsure about a decision can actually stem from an intuitive understanding that more information is needed. She suggests that this sense of indecision should prompt a thorough exploration of the options available, weighing their pros and cons, while ensuring that the pursuit of knowledge is continually revealing new insights rather than just retracing familiar territory.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a team meeting where members are unsure about project directions.
Whatever terrible things may have happened to you, only one thing allows them to damage your core self, and that is continued belief in them.
Instead of fretting about getting everything done, why not simply accept that being alive means having things to do? Then drop into full engagement with whatever you're doing, and let the worry go.
When fear makes your choices for you, no security measures on earth will keep the things you dread from finding you. But if you can avoid avoidance - if you can choose to embrace experiences out of passion, enthusiasm, and a readiness to feel whatever arises - then nothing, nothing in all this dangerous world, can keep you from being safe.
To complete your daily mental hygiene, observe any part of you that is upset or anxious, and offer that part of yourself the following simple wishes: 'May you be well. May you be happy. May you be free from suffering.' Repeat this until you actually mean it.
Something in the human psyche confuses beauty with the right to be loved. The briefest glance at human folly reveals that good looks and worthiness operate independently. Yet countless socializing forces, from Aunt Clara to the latest perfume ad, reinforce beliefs like 'If I were pretty enough, I would be loved.'
Since our society equates happiness with youth, we often assume that sorrow, quiet desperation, and hopelessness go hand in hand with getting older. They don't. Emotional pain or numbness are symptoms of living the wrong life, not a long life.
When you want to arrive at your goal more than you want to be doing what you are doing, you become stressed.
Does anyone remember laughter?
Give a small boy a hammer and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.
An unquestioned mind is the world of suffering.
Closing the confidence gap means being honest about your abilities, not constantly undervaluing them.
The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
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