“Imperfection is not our personal problem – it is a natural part of existing.”

The trance of unworthiness keeps the sweetness of belonging out of reach. The path to “the sweetness of belonging,” is acceptance – acceptance of ourselves and acceptance of others without judgment.

But this revolutionary act of treating ourselves tenderly can begin to undo the aversive messages of a lifetime.

With mindfulness training we are able to recognize when we get lost in our mental dramas, and bring a kind and nonreactive presence to the feelings that accompany them.

Extend an act of kindness each day. No one has to know. It can be a smile, reassuring words, a small favor – without expecting something in return.

On this sacred path of Radical Acceptance, rather than striving for perfection, we discover how to love ourselves into wholeness.

When we open to love, we become love.

Fear of being a flawed person lay at the root of my trance, and I had sacrificed many moments over the years in trying to prove my worth. Like the tiger Mohini, I inhabited a self-made prison that stopped me from living fully.

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of our lives is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns.

In a basic way, acceptance is seeing clearly what’s happening and holding it with kindness. This is a radical antidote to the suffering of judging mind.

Our attitude in the face of life’s challenges determines our suffering or our freedom.

Become a witness to your thoughts.

Happiness lies not in finding what is missing, but in finding what is present.

Radical Acceptance is the willingness to experience ourselves and our lives as it is.

Emotions are the interaction of thoughts and of sensations in the body.

When we relax about imperfection, we no longer lose our life moments in the pursuit of being different and in the fear of what is wrong.

The boundary to what we can accept is the boundary to our freedom.

I love healthy stuff and junk an equal amount. Whatever I’m craving, I go for it. I’m never trying to lose weight – or gain it. I’m just being.

Fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.

There are seaons when our passions have slept so long that we know not whether they still exist in us. So does flax forget that it is combustible when the fire is away from it.

Why do humans exist? A major part of the answer: because Pikaia Gracilens survived the Burgess decimation.

Worry and worship cannot exist in the same space. One always displaces the other. Choose worship.

Life is the coexistence of all opposite values. Joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, up and down, hot and cold, here and there, light and darkness, birth and death. All experience is by contrast, and one would be meaningless without the other.

For women, history does not exist. Murasaki, Sappho, and Madame Lafayette might be their own contemporaries.

I often speak publicly, and when I do, I also get to listen to other presenters. The most memorable are the ones that hit an emotional chord with a tight story and a punch line. No fluff. Keep it creative and concise. Greatness exists in quality, not quantity.