Meditation

When people begin to meditate, they often say that their thoughts are running riot and have become wilder than ever before. But I reassure them and say that this is a good sign. Far from meaning that your thoughts have become wilder, it shows that you have become quieter and are finally aware of just how noisy your thoughts have always been. Don’t be disheartened or give up. Whatever arises, just keep being present, keep returning to the breath, even in the midst of all the confusion.    ---Rigpa

The key to wise thought is to sense the energy state behind the thought.  If we pay attention, we will notice that certain thoughts are produced by fear and the small sense of self.  With them will be clinging, rigidity, unworthiness, defensiveness, aggression, or anxiety.  We can sense their effect on the heart and the body.  When we notice this suffering we can relax, breathe, loosen the identification.  With this awareness the mind will become more open and malleable,  with this pause we return to our true inner nature.  Now we can think, imagine, and plan, but from a state of ease and benevolence.  It's that simple. 
                                                                                                        ---Jack Kornfield, The Wise Heart

The Power of Relationship

I am often asked by students, "how can I treat or change this client?"  The answer is you can't.   You need to build a relationship that encourages the patient to see growth within.  To discover through the relationship that there are possibilities for positive change.  TJS

"In my early professionals years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?"    (Carl Rogers,  On Becoming a Person, 1961)

Take Control of Your Life!

“People who believe they have the power to exercise some measure of control over their lives are healthier, more effective and more successful than those who lack faith in their ability to effect changes in their lives.”

Albert Bandura

Change

"The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change." Carl Rogers

It is the hardest part of therapy. Accepting who we are. In fact, most people don't do it. Instead we become human doings with masks that protect us from really being who we are. Our masks and false roles or 'projected images' block us from 'becoming.' As Rogers says, when we can accept ourselves we discover that a miracle occurs. We are free to change. To overcome the obstacles that are holding us back. TJS

Renunciation

Renunciation has both sadness and joy in it: sadness because you realize the futility of your old ways, and joy because of the greater vision that begins to unfold when you are able to let go of them. This is no ordinary joy. It is a joy that gives birth to a new and profound strength, a confidence, an abiding inspiration that comes from the realization that you are not condemned to your habits, that you can indeed emerge from them, that you can change, and grow more and more free. ---Rigpa quote of the day