Many of our escapes are involuntary: addiction and dissociating from painful feelings are two examples. Anyone who has worked with a strong addiction—compulsive eating, compulsive sex, abuse of substances, explosive anger, or any other behavior that’s out of control—knows that when the urge comes on it’s irresistible. The seduction is too strong. So we train again and again in less highly charged situations in which the urge is present but not so overwhelming. By training with everyday irritations, we develop the knack of refraining when the going gets rough. It takes patience and an understanding of how we’re hurting ourselves not to continue taking the same old escape route of speaking or acting out.
Pema Chödron
from the book Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change
Read a random quote or see all quotes by Pema Chödron.
Further quotes from the book Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change:
- We Have a Choice
- Difficult relationships
- Groundlessness
- Holding a diversity party in our living room
- Building Inner Strength
- A Wall of Truth
- Unfettered mind
- Stepping-stones for awakening our compassion
- What are you doing when you are unhappy
- The real cause of our suffering
- Beyond our comfort zone
- The mandala of our life
- Just our personal viewpoint
- Forever in flux
- Everything and everyone is in process
- Embracing the groundlessness of our situation
- The detox period
- Renouncing one thing
- Practicing with Strong Emotions