Thoughts for the day

Just happened to see this quote posted today which reminded me about recovery. I don't necessarily agree with it 100%, but I think it holds a lot of truth, especially that change does not happen overnight.

"Through constant familiarity, we can definitely establish new behavior patterns, using our tendency to form habits to our advantage. If we make a steady effort, I think we can overcome any form of negative conditioning and make positive changes in our lives. But we need to remember that genuine change doesn't happen overnight." ~Dalai Lama

This also reminded me that I had wanted to post some Elisabeth Kübler-Ross quotes. I've always found her to be an incredibly interesting, inspirational person. If you've never read her memoir, Wheel of Life, it is a thought-provoking piece. A few things she had to say on life were:

"It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive - to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are."

“The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well”

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of th edepths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people who not just happen."

What are some of your favorite quotes and whom do you find inspiring?

Body thought for this week

I'm stealing this quote from a friend of mine who posted this on her facebook wall today.

Though most of us are afraid of getting fat, I really like thinking about ourselves in this positive way as humorous as it may be:

"With time, women gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated, and intelligent! Beginning today, when I look at myself in the mirror, I will think "Good grief, look how smart I am, I must be a genius!"

Interesting quotes

All these quotes are from Mary Pipher's new book Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World.

"As a therapist, I learned that people change only when they believe change is possible."

"People can change only in an environment of utter acceptance and regard." said by Carl Rogers on his "paradox of change"

"It takes something larger than ourselves to fight something that feels larger than we are..." in reference to Carl Jung's formula Spiritus contra spiritum which is widely used in AA.

"Despair is the subjective state we experience when our inner and outer resources are insufficient to cope with the situation at hand. At core, it involves a breakdown in our trust of ourselves and the universe."

"The luckiest children are those who can experience challenges, deal with them and become resilient."

"We haven't journeyed all this way because we are made of sugar candy." said by Winston Churchill.

**********

As an aside note, Mary Pipher's book Reviving Ophelia was a book that impacted me greatly as a teen. I not only felt understood, but it truly made me realize how many hardships young girls face in their lives.

Since then, I've read several other of Pipher's books and have enjoyed them. Sometimes, I used to wish she was my therapist as corny and honest as that sounds.

In 2007, Pipher made waves again in returning her Presidential Citation Award to the American Psychological Association as a protest over their position on military and CIA interrogations at the time. The APA has now changed their policy and has banned members from the participation of any interrogations and similar procedures.

Recovery quote

I came across this paragraph yesterday as I was reading the book My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor. It's a memoir about a brain scientist who suffered a stroke and how she recovered. I have a lot more to say about her and her own thoughts on recovery. Although recovery from a brain trauma is vastly different from an eating disorder, I think there are some similarities. I'll post in more elaboration later.

Here's a paragraph about the importance of continuing to try:

"Most important I had to be willing to try. The try is everything. The try is me saying to my brain, hey, I value this connection and I want it to happen. I may have to try, try, and try again with no results for a thousand times before I get even an inkling of a result, but if I don't try, it may never happen."