Sharon Salzberg

When we believe a wounding story, our whole world is diminished.

We truly can reconfigure how we see ourselves and reclaim the love for ourselves that we__e innately capable of.

Pain & suffering requires time, awareness, and an intentional practice of self-love to disentangle.

Although love is often depicted as starry-eyed and sweet, love for the self is made of tougher stuff.

Self-love is an unfolding process that gains strength over time, not a goal with a fixed end point.

The idea that traumatic residues__r unresolved stories__an be inherited is groundbreaking.

The unconscious mind is a vast repository of experiences and associations that sorts things out much faster than the slow-moving conscious mind.

For any marginalized group to change the story that society tells about them takes courage and perseverance.

Smiling at someone can have significant health consequences.

Seeking happiness is not the problem. The problem is that we often do not know where and how to find genuine happiness and so make the mistakes that cause suffering for ourselves & others.

When you recognize and reflect on even one good thing about yourself, you are building a bridge to a place of kindness and caring.

Never feel ashamed of your longing for happiness.

Clinging to our ideas of perfection isolates us from life and is a barrier.

The notion of loving oneself has gotten an undeservedly bad rap, which goes something like this: self-love is narcissistic, selfish, self-indulgent, the supreme delusion of a runaway ego looking out for __umber one._ In fact, just the opposite is true.

Integration arises from intimacy with our emotions and our bodies, as well as with our thoughts.

While happiness is an end in itself, it is also the state of mind we can have right now.

The key to cultivating confidence in ourselves is understanding our right to make the truth our own.

Mindfulness helps us to set boundaries by revealing what makes us unhappy & what brings us peace.