We Are Okay

Healing, Letting Go, Peace 0

“Who we are right now is okay.  In fact, codependents are some of the most loving, generous, good-hearted, and concerned people I know.  We’ve just allowed ourselves to be tricked into doing things that hurt us, and we’re going to learn how to stop doing these things.  But those tricks are our problems; they are not us.  If we have one character defect that is abhorrent, it is the way we hate and pick on ourselves.  That is simply not tolerable nor acceptable any longer.  We can stop picking on ourselves for picking on ourselves.  This habit is not our fault either, but it is our responsibility to learn to stop doing it.

“We can cherish ourselves and live our lives.  We can nurture ourselves and love ourselves.  We can accept our wonderful selves, with all our faults, foibles, strong points, weak points, feelings, thoughts, and everything else.  It’s the best thing we’ve got going for us.  It’s who we are, and who we were meant to be.  And it’s not a mistake.  We are the greatest thing that will ever happen to us.  Believe it.  It makes life much easier.”

— Melody Beattie, Codependent No More, p. 112-113

First Love

Letting Go, Love, Peace 0

“First love; then do what you do.  First choose peace; then say what you say.  Asking, ‘What should I do?’  ‘What should I say?’ really means, ‘How do I get the outcome I want?’  ‘How do I control this person?’  Seldom are we confused if we make peace and mental wholeness our goal.”

— Hugh Prather, The Little Book of Letting Go, p. 50-51

A Still Mind

Letting Go, Peace 0

“The opposite of a worried mind is not a foolish mind, but a still mind.  The simple, observable fact is that a worried mind is busy, cluttered, and scattered, whereas a still mind is more capable of broad, steady awareness, if for no other reason than it is less distracted.”

— Hugh Prather, The Little Book of Letting Go, p. 35