“So often we try to make other people feel better by minimizing their pain, by telling them that it will get better (which it will) or that there are worse things in the world (which there are). But that's not what I actually needed. What I needed was for someone to tell me that it hurt because it mattered.”

“Maybe what you need is someone to talk to. Someone who'll make you feel understood even if they really don't understand you. Someone who's willing to listen. Who's willing to just be there for you even if they have nothing meaningful to say. Maybe that's what you really need. A friend. Someone who's not there to fix you but willing to cheer and support you… while you figure things out and heal on your own.”

“Healing hurts. But what hurts more is the refusal of the call. The true pain of living is the abandonment of self, the mind-body split that makes us fear life. Our ache may be heavy and our souls tired today, but resistance makes it all feel a thousand times worse. Rejection of where we are amplifies suffering. Until we cannot take it anymore. Until there is no way out but in. Diving into the blackness, we discover not death but more abundant life. This is the great paradox of healing, which all great artists and poets and seers have known. We die into our trauma and discover our courage. The fiercest warriors are the ones who have let life break and remake them a thousand times over. The gods of healing are calling through your pain today. Healing hurts, yes, but the hurt itself may eventually heal you.”

“When someone tells you, “I love you,” and then you feel, “Oh, I must be worthy after all,” that’s an illusion. That’s not true. Or someone says, “I hate you,” and you think, “Oh, God, I knew it; I’m not very worthy,” that’s not true either. Neither one of these thoughts hold any intrinsic reality. They are an overlay. When someone says, “I love you,” he is telling you about himself, not you. When someone says, “I hate you,” she is telling you about herself, not you. World views are self views—literally.”

“My speaking is meant to shake you awake, not to tell you how to dream better.”

“I will not apologize for who I am.
I will not apologize for what I need.
I will not apologize for what I want!”

“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.”

“It is not always the traumatic experiences that teach us to doubt ourselves & feel dismissed. It's the people who suggest it was our fault. It's the environments telling us to move on. It's the messages that dismiss the difficulty of survival in a world that repeats these cycles.”

“You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.”

“If you need time to achieve something, it must be false. The real is always with you; you need not wait to be what you are.”