Reading Archive (Courage)

How Is Your Heart Doing?

Omid Safi

In many Muslim cultures, when you want to ask them how they’re doing, you ask: in Arabic, Kayf haal-ik? or, in Persian, Haal-e shomaa chetoreh? How is yourhaal? What is this haal that you inq...

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73K reads, 16 comments

Taking a Stand

Lynne Twist

Over two thousand years ago, the mathematician Archimedes said, “Give me a place to stand and I’ll move the world.” Taking a stand is a way of living and being that draws on a place ...

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60K reads, 12 comments

Seven Stages Of The Ego

Rumi, as told by Elif Shafak

The first stage is the Depraved Ego (Nafs), the most primitive and common state of being, when the soul is entrapped in worldly pursuits. Most human beings are stuck there, struggling and suffering in...

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58K reads, 15 comments

Sincerely Enthusiastic

Gretchen Rubin

I wanted to laugh more, I wanted to show more loving-kindness, and I also wanted to be more enthusiastic. I knew that it wasn't nice to criticize but it was fun. Why was it so deliciously satisfyi...

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50K reads, 11 comments

Habits Of The Heart

Parker Palmer

“Habits of the heart” (a phrase coined by Alexis de Tocqueville) are deeply ingrained ways of seeing, being, and responding to life that involve our minds, our emotions, our self-images, o...

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40K reads, 3 comments

Exhausting Quest For Perfection

Brene Brown

The quest for perfection is exhausting and unrelenting, but as hard as we try, we can't turn off the tapes that fill our heads with messages like "Never good enough" and "What will ...

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30K reads, 11 comments

Communication As Mutual Entrainment

Ursula LeGuin

Every act of communication is an act of tremendous courage in which we give ourselves over to two parallel possibilities: the possibility of planting into another mind a seed sprouted in ours and watc...

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30K reads, 8 comments

The Work Of Love Is To Love

Mark Nepo

My own time on earth has led me to believe in two powerful instruments that turn experience into love: holding and listening. For every time I have held or been held, every time I have listened or bee...

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27K reads, 15 comments

Creative Living

Elizabeth Gilbert

This, I believe, is the central question upon which all creative living hinges: Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you? Look, I don't know what's hi...

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24K reads, 13 comments

Big Enough to Take It All In

Margaret Wheatley

To want to see clearly is a true act of fearlessness. To open our heart and mind, to be open to what life is offering us in this moment, requires tremendous courage and steadfastness. In the openne...

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23K reads, 7 comments

Choosing Suffering over Safety

Bonnie Rose

“Can you walk, sweetheart?” I say these words to our dog Stella who is dying. It’s time for breakfast and if she walks from our bed to the kitchen, maybe that will be a sign. Maybe s...

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22K reads, 14 comments

When My Life Is In Danger

Christina Feldman

A few years ago, an elderly monk arrived in India after fleeing from prison in Tibet. Meeting with the Dalai Lama, he recounted the years he had been imprisoned, the hardship and beatings he had endur...

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20K reads, 13 comments

My Word Of The Year

Nancy Gibbs

My word of the year is listen. It’s one of those words whose meaning is in its music. Listen is a quiet word, that half swallowed L and diffident I and softly hissing S. It defies the clamoro...

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18K reads, 6 comments

How Observation Changes Relationships

Vimala Thakar

When we sit in silence what do we do? We sit and observe the voluntary and involuntary activities of the body and mind. Slowly the voluntary activities come to an end, but the involuntary activities...

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17K reads, 8 comments

Giving Up is Different From Letting Someone Down

Brother David Steindl-Rast

This inner gesture of letting go from moment to moment is what is so terribly difficult for us; and it can be applied to almost any area of experience. We mentioned time, for instance: there is the wh...

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17K reads, 10 comments