Self-care is never a selfish act - it is only good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others.
Interpretation
Self-care is an essential practice that enables individuals to take care of themselves in order to better serve others.
This quote emphasizes that self-care is not an act of selfishness but rather a necessary aspect of responsibility towards oneself and others. By valuing and nurturing our own well-being, we become more capable of contributing positively to the lives of those around us, as we harness our innate gifts to offer to the world.
In practice
In a wellness workshop, discussing the importance of self-care for mental health.
The academic bias against subjectivity not only forces our students to write poorly ("It is believed...," instead of, "I believe..."), it deforms their thinking about themselves and their world. In a single stroke, we delude our students into believing that bad prose turns opinions into facts and we alienate them from their own inner lives.
Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.
We need a coat with two pockets. In one pocket there is dust, and in the other pocket there is gold. We need a coat with two pockets to remind us who we are.
The kind of teaching that transforms people does not happen if the student’s inward teacher is ignored… we can speak to the teacher within our students only when we are on speaking terms with the teacher within ourselves.
Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic self-hood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks--we will also find our path of authentic service in the world.
The people who help us grow toward true self offer unconditional love, neither judging us to be deficient nor trying to force us to change but accepting us exactly as we are. And yet this unconditional love does not lead us to rest on our laurels. Instead, it surrounds us with a charged force field that makes us want to grow from the inside out - a force field that is safe enough to take the risks and endure the failures that growth requires.
And although she was sometimes dissatisfied with herself, she felt unable to go beyond her own limitations. Books were safer.
Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.
Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude.
Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results … We understand this law in the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world—although its operation there is just as simple and undeviating— and they, therefore, do not cooperate with it.
Young people, nowadays, imagine that money is everything. Yes, murmured Lord Henry, settling his button-hole in his coat; and when they grow older they know it.
Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found.
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