“They didn’t fill the desert with pyramids, they just built some.”
Just because your potential is unlimited does not mean that your work to actualize it must be endless.
Somewhere in the rhetoric of becoming who we desire to be, we’ve forgotten the virtues of stillness, of brevity, of the very fine balance between having too much or too little, a dance we all must weave in and out of each day.
The poet Jennifer Michael Hecht wrote a beautiful piece called “On the Strength of All Conviction and the Stamina of Love” in which she illustrates how important it is to know when it is time to simply let the…
It’s okay if you aren’t ready to move at full speed just yet.
It’s okay if you aren’t ready to move at full speed just yet.
As you begin to see so many people pick up and carry on with their lives so effortlessly, I hope that this is your reminder that it’s okay to move slowly through transition. It is okay to feel unnerved, to feel uncertain, to not feel quite ready for life as you once knew it to return.
It is okay to feel a subtle sense of procrastination, as though the world simply cannot demand the urgency from you that it once did. It is okay to feel as…
I hope you find the courage to live an imperfect life.
The truth about perfection is that we only want it so that others might not hurt us for the lack of it.
We don’t crave perfection because it’s an authentic expression of who we are. We use perfection as a defense not only against other people’s potential criticisms, but also against what we know, deep down, is not in alignment in our own lives. It is soothing to make things look just right on the surface when you know that they are a little off just beneath.
Do you really think you need to worry about what someone might think…
Sometimes, a shift of perspective is really what you need.
What if, in the moments you feel most alone, you began to realize that you are also free? What if you could finally see that you are completely unburdened from the expectations of others, able to define and redefine yourself, to explore life on your own terms, to hear the sound of your own voice? What if being on your own, in any capacity, is a sign of self-sufficiency and courage? What if you’ve already made it? …
Destiny is a subtle coincidence.
Everything that is truly right for you will make you feel at peace.
Everything that is meant for you will feel like a deep exhale, as though you are returning home to a place you forgot existed. We so often yearn and want for the things that help us escape who we are, but the things that are actually meant for us — the ones that arrive and stay — they make us feel a sense of steady calm. We do not need to be swept off our feet, but grounded through them. In the moment is where love really…
Learn with the small stuff, so you’re ready for the big stuff.
Almost every last one of us lives with the assumption that if something is not right for us, it will simply be pulled away in time. We linger, we wonder, we grasp onto what’s so clearly not a match and we wait for the universe to do the dirty work — and feel devastated once it’s done.
We think of letting go as a last ditch effort to our own progress and sanity — we will let go only if we have to, only if we are forced, only if the world truly proves to us that something is not…
The past is gone, all that exists is this moment.
The past that you believe is currently holding you back is nothing but a memory.
It’s an image that lives in your mind and in your mind alone.
The past is not a painting in a museum. It is not a portrait that we can gaze at and identify each brushstroke and contour. It is a semblance of emotion, a series of recollection, most of which become increasingly more distorted over time.
Do you ever wonder why the things that seem to drum up your heartbeat and sink your stomach until you’re caving in on yourself are one dimensional ideas…
“What I wish I had done yesterday is showing me what I need to do today.”
At the heart of discomfort is the potential for great wisdom. Every time we find ourselves feeling jealous, angry, regretful, resentful, self-hating, judgmental, closed-minded, and hopeless, we are also being handed an opportunity to transform our mindsets and change our lives.
These emotions are not punishments, they’re signals of the shifts that need to take place to support the lives we deeply desire to create. Here 16 of the most important ones.
“What I envy in others is showing me what I desire for myself.”
Envy is a revealing emotion. It masks itself as anger or frustration when in reality it is a deeply buried desire.
What we envy in others is actually…
The world is brimming with ideas, but few act as vessels.
Ideas are like visitors.
At least, that’s the way Elizabeth Gilbert puts it.
To her, ideas are entities separate from the mind and self. (She’s also noted that the Romans used to think of “genius” as creative spirits that live in the walls of an artist’s home.)
That linguistic separation has led us to believe that we are the generators of ideas, but we aren’t. We simply receive them, and if we don’t bring them to the world fully, they find somebody else to do it.
“Our planet is inhabited not only by animals and plants and bacteria and viruses…
You are becoming the person who can finally take the leap.
The world isn’t withholding your future from you. The universe doesn’t delay. There are no purgatories in life, no waiting periods.
There is only the space between realizing where you’re meant to be and feeling you’re ready to go there. This is where you phase out of denial, release the anchors, the attachments, the false beliefs. This is not punishment for being unfinished, it’s a sacred part of your journey.
You are not stuck.
You are just becoming the person who can finally take the leap.
Your life is a self-paced journey.
You are where you are because you feel…
Brianna Wiest
Author of 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think and six other collections. Visit briannawiest.com to shop for books and more.
