The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have

When feeling like I will die if I don't have your approval, I need, more than ever, to die to my need for your approval.

I was able to drop my replaying of wounds

Information is not wisdom.

This biological fact holds the secret of all relationship. It is cellular proof that beneath any resistance we might pose and beyond all our attempts that fall short, there is in the very nature of life itself some essential joining force.

“The day is to be experienced, not understood!”

All this affirms the need to stay with our feelings long enough for the emotional associations—the ripples—to settle. No one can escape this. No matter how young or old you may be, no matter how innocent or experienced you are, if you've been awake and alive and in any kind of relationship that has in any way been real, your waters will stir, your

I became very good at this, could spin in a crowd of loved ones, accommodating many needs at once. I came to believe that I was being selfless, an agile listener, reliable and giving. I thought I had found a way to be both who I am and considerate.

It is not by chance that we feel compelled to be naked and vulnerable in the presence of another, that despite all our fears and defensive styles, we want to be held and touched completely just at the moment when we are unbearably sensitive.

In this way, I've learned that loving yourself requires a courage unlike any other. It requires us to believe in and stay loyal to something no one else can see that keeps us in the world—our own self-worth.