The next time you lose heart and you can’t bear to experience what you’re feeling, you might recall this instruction: change the way you see it and lean in. Instead of blaming our discomfort on outer circumstances or on our own weakness, we can choose to stay present and awake to our experience, not rejecting it, not grasping it, not buying the stories that we relentlessly tell ourselves. This is priceless advice that addresses the true cause of suffering — yours, mine, and that of all living beings.

Pema Chödron

from the book Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears

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Further quotes from the book Taking the Leap:

• Realizing that we are never alone
• The path of pausing
• Unshakable tenderness
• Admiting all experiences
• Unconditional openness
• Getting unstuck
• Learning to accept the present moment
• Here, Now, Always
• Openness is like the wind
• Letting natural openness come to us
• A reservoir of courage