To seek approval is to have no resting place, no sanctuary. Like all judgement, approval encourages a constant striving. It makes us uncertain of who we are and of our true value. Approval cannot be trusted. It can be withdrawn at any time no matter what our track record has been. It is as nourishing of real growth as cotton… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share
When people are blessed they discover that their lives matter, that there is something in them worthy of blessing. — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share Image
A woman once told me that she did not feel the need to reach out to those around her because she prayed… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share Image
Befriending the life in others is sometimes a complex matter. There are times when we offer our strength and protection, but these are usually only temporary measures. The greatest blessing we offer others may be the belief we have in their struggle for freedom, the courage to support and accompany them as they determine for themselves the strength that will… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share
Life offers its wisdom generously. Everything teaches. Not everyone learns. Life asks of us the same thing we have been asked in… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share Image
Perhaps wisdom is simply a matter of waiting, and healing a question of time. And anything good you've ever been given is… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share Image
Before every session, I take a moment to remember my humanity. There is no experience that this man has that I cannot… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share Image
Befriending life is less a matter of knowledge than a question of wisdom. It is not about mastering life, controlling it or… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share Image
Chances are that any helpful two-year-old will break some eggs. We are often not very good at things when we are new. But there may be an important choice to make at such moments. Do we support and protect the innate wish to be of help to others in our children, or do we protect the eggs? Hard as it… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share
Big messages come in small packages. All it may take to restore someone's trust in life may be returning a lost earring or a… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share Image
The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share Image
The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share Image
Many people do not know that they can strengthen or diminish the life around them. The way we live day to day simply may not reflect back to us our power to influence life or the web of relationships that connects us. Life responds to us anyway. We all have the power to affect others. We may affect those we… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share
A label is a mask life wears. We put labels on life all the time. 'Right,' 'wrong,' 'success,' 'failure,' . . . Labeling sets up an expectation of life that is often so compelling we can no longer see things as they really are. This expectation often gives us a false sense of familiarity toward something that is really new… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share
Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you - all of the expectations, all… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share Image
It is said that the Christian mystic Theresa of Avila found difficulty at first in reconciling the vastness of the life of the spirit with the mundane tasks of her Carmelite convent: the washing of pots, the sweeping of floors, the folding of laundry. At some point of grace, the mundane became for her a sort of prayer, a way… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share
Goose bumps happen when your soul is close to you, breathing lightly on the back of your neck, and wakes you up. — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share Image
We have become terribly vulnerable, not because we suffer but because we have separated ourselves from each other. A patient once told me that… — Rachel Naomi Remen Copy Share Image