Kathzoofus

What a great book.  I need to read this again and again.  Here's an excerpt that I really liked. "Complaining & reactivity are favorite mind patterns through which the ego strengthens itself.  For many people, a large part of their mental-emotional activity consists of complaining and reacting against this or that.  By doing this, you make others or a situation 'wrong' and yourself 'right'.  Through being 'right', you feel superior, and through feeling superior, you strengthen your sense of self.  In reality, of course, you are only strengthening the illusion of ego."

Quotes from the book "Raising your emotional intelligence" by Jeanne Segal. If you haven't read this book, I recommend that you do. "We are told to value the head and devalue the heart; instinctively, we value the  heart and feel wrong for doing so.  We are not wrong." "EQ's domain is personal and interpersonal relationships; it is responsible for your self-esteem, self awareness, social sensitivity, and social adaptability." "Growing emotionally is a lifelong process, a beautiful part of our human potential.  You can always learn to become aware of your feelings, to accept them, and to use the information they offer to the advantage of yourself and others."

From the book: Don't Just Do Something, Sit There. A Mindfulness Retreat with Sylvia Boorstein. "Mindfulness, seeing clearly, means awakening to the happiness of the uncomplicated moment. We complicate moments. Hardly anything happens without the mind spinning it up into an elaborate production. It's the elaboration that makes life more difficult than it needs to be." "I discovered my habit of transforming neutral fact into painful opinion many years ago when I phoned a monastery to arrange to do a private retreat. The person I spoke with said, "You need to talk to Robert, the retreat master." I left a message for Robert and was assured he would call me back. The following day I had a message on my answering machine from Robert saying he was returning my call. The day after that, I phoned and was told, once again, that Robert wasn't there. I explained that I had called Robert and Robert had called me and here I was, now, calling Robert again. I adde

"The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another." — William James, philosopher and psychologist