Quote

The muscles used to make a smile actually send a biochemical message to our nervous system that it is safe to relax the flight of freeze response.

Tara Brach

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Tara Brach
Age: 71
Born: 1953
Born: May 17
Peace Activist
Psychologist
Teacher
Messages
Biochemical
Response
Freeze
Smile
Muscles
Safe
Relax
System
Send
Actually
Flight
Used
Nervous
Make
Message

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When we put down ideas of what life should be like, we are free to wholeheartedly say yes to our life as it is.
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This is for anyone reading this who wants to explore it. Recognize the thought, Afraid of loving, then gently put your hand on your heart to send a message of kindness.
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The renowned seventh-century Zen master Seng-tsan taught that true freedom is being without anxiety about imperfection.
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Offer some gesture of kindness to yourself. Sometimes it's just a message, to say: It's okay. You're going to be okay. We've been through this before. The intention is reassurance, that you are not alone and you can do this. It is the most powerful way to come out of what I call the trance of unworthiness.
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Observing desire without acting on it enlarges our freedom to choose how we live.
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That non-attachment gives us the freedom to be exactly who we are.
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Awakening self-compassion is often the greatest challenge people face on the spiritual path.
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Even going through the motions is a way of establishing a new relationship with our inner life that is caring and tender, versus one that is judging, distancing or ignoring. This is the beginning of being capable of intimacy with others.
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Underneath the stress is fear, and the biggest is our own personal fear of failure.
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Mindfulness is a pause - the space between stimulus and response: that's where choice lies.
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Perhaps the biggest tragedy of our lives is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns...We may want to love other people without holding back, to feel authentic, to breathe in the beauty around us, to dance and sing. Yet each day we listen to inner voices that keep our life small.
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The way to develop the habit of savoring is to pause when something is beautiful and good and catches our attention - the sound of rain, the look of the night sky - the glow in a child's eyes, or when we witness some kindness. Pause... then totally immerse in the experience of savoring it.
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If our hearts are ready for anything, we will spontaneously reach out when others are hurting. Living in an ethical way can attune us to the pain and needs of others, but when our hearts are open and awake, we care instinctively.
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If you let someone know you appreciate him or her, especially when you're going to disagree, it gets that person's defenses down.
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Our greatest longing is to be intimate.
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If attachment then carries forward in a way that's not healthy, we need to let it be there without making it wrong and bring as compassionate and honest attention to it as possible. Honor that this is part of being human, but it's important to know when it's getting in the way.
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I'd known that I had the capacity to love, that I enjoyed seeing other people be happy, that I had a real awe and wonder about the beauty of this world.
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Unless we're completely awake, have a degree of that. We tense against love and hold on in a way that doesn't let it flow. When that's really strong, the key piece to freeing our hearts is self-compassion.
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The main thing going on around intimacy is that we've developed a lot of strategies so we'll be a desirable package.
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