Quotes about Self-awareness

A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a thought-evolved being. For such knowledge necessitates the understanding of others as the result of thought, and as he develops a right understanding, and sees ever more clearly the internal relations of things by the action of cause and effect, he ceases to fuss, fume, worry, and grieve. He remains poised, steadfast, serene.

People aren't thinking about us nearly as much as we might think they are.

At some point we must stop: 1. Replaying what happened over and over. 2. Taking what was actually terrible in the past and tricking ourselves into thinking it was better than it was. 3. Imagining the ways things should be so much that we can't acknowledge what is.

Am I trying to prove or improve?

What were the unrealistic expectations I had, and how can I better manage these next time?

Do you know how much drama and heartbreak I could have avoided in my life if I would not have set into motion what needs to remain still? Every time this has happened in my life, I can draw a straight line to decisions I made from a hardened heart.

Finally, I went to my husband. "Honey," I said, feeling the entanglements of expectations loosening their grip on me, "I can't do everything good wives seem to do. But I can do three things. So, tell me your top three things, and I will do those well." After all, I could spend a whole marriage doing a hundred things halfway with a bitter attitude and an overwhelmed spirit. Or, I could do three things wholeheartedly with a smile on my face and love in my heart.

We must feel the pain to heal the pain. If we never allow ourselves to feel it, we won't acknowledge it's there.

I'm going to get into a funk, because that's what I do. I will feel put off, and then I will put on that ratty robe of rejection and wear it all day long. But I don't want to keep being a slave to my runaway emotions and assumptions. I don't want my days to be dictated by the moods of other people. And I really don't want the rejections of my past feeding my propensity to feel rejected today.

I had allowed to settle into the core of who I am. I talked about myself in ways I would never let another person.

When you feed negativity on the inside, it's negativity that you'll exude on the outside.

Anything that infuses us with humility is good. Even if it feels a bit like humiliation in the moment, the workings of humility within are a gift.