Shakti Gawain (1948–2018) was an American bestselling author, speaker, retreat leader, and internationally renowned teacher in the fields of consciousness and personal growth.
CLEAR ALL
We cannot make another person change his or her steps to an old dance, but if we change our own steps, the dance no longer can continue in the same predictable pattern.
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Life’s work is to wake up, to let the things that enter into the circle wake you up rather than put you to sleep. The only way to do this is to open, be curious, and develop some sense of sympathy for everything that comes along, to get to know its nature and let it teach you what it will.
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Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation.
Empathetic listening is an awesome medication for the hurting heart.
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. . . it is almost always the case that whatever has wounded you will also be instrumental in your healing.
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If you bring forth what is within you it will save you. If you do not, it will destroy you.
If only our passion to understand others were as great as our passion to be understood. Were this so, all our apologies would be truly meaningful and healing.
Respect the fact that all you do and are now has evolved for a good reason and serves an important purpose.
When forgiveness experts talk in binary language (’You either forgive the wrongdoer or you are a prisoner of your own anger and hate’), they are collapsing the messy complexity of human emotions into a simplistic dichotomous equation.
People’s sense of self-worth is pivotal to their ability to look clearly at the hurt they’ve caused. The more solid one’s sense of self regard, the more likely that that person can feel empathy and compassion for the hurt party, and apologize from an authentic center.