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
Smile
Muscles
Safe
Relax
System
Send
Actually
Flight
Used
Nervous
Make
Message
Messages
Biochemical
Response
Freeze

More quotes by Tara Brach

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I registered the dukkha of self-aversion with such clarity that I knew there was no freedom unless I could love this life without holding back. This didn't mean I was going to ignore my flaws and stop seeking to improve what I could. But in the deepest way, I was not going to fixate on the conclusion that something was wrong with me.
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Awakening self-compassion is often the greatest challenge people face on the spiritual path.
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Paying attention is the most basic and profound expression of love.
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Stopping the endless pursuit of getting somewhere else is the perhaps most beautiful offering we can make to our spirit.
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I think of desire as the essence that brings forth the whole universe.
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Underneath the stress is fear, and the biggest is our own personal fear of failure.
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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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True refuge is that which allows us to be at home, at peace, to discover true happiness. The only thing that can give us true refuge is the awareness and love that is intrinsic to who we are. Ultimately, its our own true nature.
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I would say both Western psychology and Eastern paths would recognize that we get caught up in feeling like a separate self and an unworthy self.
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Happiness lies not in finding what is missing, but in finding what is present.
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When we open to love, we become love.
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Our greatest longing is to be intimate.
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Allowing another to be as they are is more what I think of as space. The space to express yourself and know that you're going to be accepted. That's more where I go than with the actual physical logistics of how much time you have together and how much time you have apart.
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Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha.
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If there's a demand of being together in a certain way, those expectations and judgements take away from that space and create an edginess and a cramped-ness to the relationship.
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But this revolutionary act of treating ourselves tenderly can begin to undo the aversive messages of a lifetime.
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We, like the Mother of the World, become the compassionate presence that can hold, with tenderness, the rising and passing waves of suffering.
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If our hearts are ready for anything, we can open to our inevitable losses, and to the depths of our sorrow. We can grieve our lost loves, our lost youth, our lost health, our lost capacities. This is part of our humanness, part of the expression of our love for life.
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We can find true refuge within our own hearts and minds-right here, right now, in the midst of our moment-to-momen t lives.
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My first book, 'Radical Acceptance', grew out of the suffering of feeling personally deficient and unworthy. Because most of us are so quick to turn against ourselves, the teachings and practices of radical acceptance continue as a strong current in 'True Refuge': nurturing a forgiving, understanding heart is a basic step on the path.
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