Rachel Naomi Remen Quotes - Page 2

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• Perhaps losing integrity with yourself is the greatest stress of all, far more hurtful to us than competition, time pressure, or lack of respect. Our vitality is rooted in our integrity. When we do not live in one piece, our life force becomes divided. Becoming separated from our authentic values may weaken us.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Stress, Integrity, Competition

  14 Copy quote

• Ours is not a culture that respects the sick, the old or the vulnerable. We strive for independence, competence, and mastery. In embracing such 'frontier' values, we may become intolerant of human wholeness, contemptuous of anything in ourselves, and in others, that has needs or is capable of suffering. The denial of a vulnerability is the ultimate barrier to compassion.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Compassion, Sick, Suffering

  8 Copy quote

• A human life has seasons much as the earth has seasons, each time with its own particular beauty and power. And gift. By focusing on springtime and summer, we have turned the natural process of life into a process of loss rather than a process of celebration and appreciation. Life is neither linear nor stagnant. It is movement from mystery to mystery. Just as a year includes autumn and winter, life includes death, not as an opposite but as an integral part of the way life is made.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Death, Summer, Appreciation

  Rachel Naomi Remen (2006). “Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal, 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.82, Penguin

  25 Copy quote

• When we know ourselves to be connected to all others, acting compassionately is simply the natural thing to do.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Kindness, Bad Ass, Compassion

  19 Copy quote

• What we do to survive is often different from what we may need to do in order to live.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Order, Different, Needs

  Rachel Naomi Remen (2006). “Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal, 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.104, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

• Wisdom comes most easily to those who have the courage to embrace life without judgment and are willing to not know, sometimes for a long time. It requires us to be more fully and simply alive than we have been taught to be. It may require us to suffer. But ultimately we will be more than we were when we began. There is the seed of a greater wholeness in everyone.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Wisdom, Long, Suffering

  15 Copy quote

• 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 and unprecedented. We are in relationship with our expectations and not with life itself.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Giving, Expectations, Labels

  Rachel Naomi Remen (2006). “Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal, 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.66, Penguin

  18 Copy quote

• Freedom is as frightening now as it was thousands of years ago. It will always require a willingness to sacrifice what is most familiar for what is most true. To be free we may need to act from integrity, on trust, sometimes for a very long time. Few of us will reach our promised land in a day. But perhaps the most important part of the story is that God does not delegate this task. Whenever anyone moves toward freedom, God Himself is there.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Freedom, Integrity, Moving

  8 Copy quote

• In this culture the soul and the heart too often go homeless. Listening creates a holy silence. When you listen generously to people, they can hear the truth in themselves, often for the first time. And in the silence of listening, you can know yourself in everyone. Eventually you may be able to hear, in everyone and beyond everyone, the unseen singing softly to itself and to you.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Heart, People, Silence

  12 Copy quote

• Most people have come to prefer certain of lifes experiences and deny and reject others, unaware of the value of the hidden things that may come wrapped in plain and even ugly paper. In avoiding all pain and seeking comfort at all costs, we may be left without intimacy or compassion; in rejecting change and risk we often cheat ourselves of the quest; in denying our suffering we may never know our strength or our greatness

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Pain, Greatness, Compassion

  Rachel Naomi Remen (2006). “Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal, 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.71, Penguin

  20 Copy quote

• The willingness to consider possibility requires a tolerance of uncertainty.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Tolerance, Possibility, Uncertainty

  Rachel Naomi Remen (2006). “Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal, 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.223, Penguin

  36 Copy quote

• Deep inside, our integrity sings to us whether we are listening or not. It is a note that only we can hear. Eventually, when life makes us ready to listen, it will help us to find our way home.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Integrity, Home, Listening

  21 Copy quote

• 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 become their refuge and the foundation for their lives. I think it is especially important to believe in someone at a time when they cannot yet believe in themselves. Then your belief will become their lifeline.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Friendship, Believe, Struggle

  47 Copy quote

• The spiritual is inclusive. It is the deepest sense of belonging and participation.We all participate in the spiritual at all times, whether we know it or not.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Spiritual, Participation, All Time

  18 Copy quote

• There are few master teachers in life. ... But there are many who can listen to life so well that they can hear the vastness in everything and in you. A teacher is someone who has learned to listen to life. Someone who has found a way to listen well. Any real teacher is only a finger pointing. In the end, we may find out more by not following our teachers but by following what our teachers follow for themselves. From a good teacher you may learn the secret of listening. You will never learn the secrets of life. You will have to listen for yourself.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Teacher, Real, Secret

  56 Copy quote

• I think ideas only lead to change for intellectual people; and not even them. What really leads to change is experience. Life itself is the teacher.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Teacher, Thinking, Ideas

  Source: www.mightycompanions.org

  4 Copy quote

• Life offers its wisdom generously. Everything teaches. Not everyone learns.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Life, Teach, Offers

  Rachel Naomi Remen (2001). “My Grandfather's Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging”, p.111, Penguin

  45 Copy quote

• Fear is the friction in all transitions.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Fear, Transition, Friction

  Rachel Naomi Remen (2006). “Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal, 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.163, Penguin

  6 Copy quote

• An unanswered question is a fine traveling companion. It sharpens your eye for the road.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Eye, Unanswered Questions, Fine

  Rachel Naomi Remen (2006). “Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal, 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.205, Penguin

  11 Copy quote

• We may need to let go of our beliefs and ideas about life in order to have life.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Life, Letting Go, Order

  Rachel Naomi Remen (2006). “Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal, 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.71, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

• I have even learned to respond to someone crying by just listening. In the old days I used to reach for the tissues, until I realized that passing a person a tissue may be just another way to shut them down, to take them out of their experience of sadness and grief. Now I just listen. When they have cried all they need to cry, they find me there with them.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Grief, Sadness, Listening

  Rachel Naomi Remen (2006). “Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal, 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.112, Penguin

  22 Copy quote

• The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Powerful, Listening To Others, Silence

  Rachel Naomi Remen (2006). “Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal, 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.112, Penguin

  23 Copy quote

• I suspect that the most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention And especially if it's given from the heart. When people are talking, there's no need to do anything but receive them. Just take them in. Listen to what they're saying. Care about it. Most times caring about it is even more important than understanding it. Most of us don't value ourselves or our love enough to know this.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Powerful, Communication, Heart

  Rachel Naomi Remen (2006). “Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal, 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.112, Penguin

  23 Copy quote

• Before every session, I take a moment to remember my humanity. There is no experience that this man has that I cannot share with him, no fear that I cannot understand, no suffering that I cannot care about, because I too am human. No matter how deep his wound, he does not need to be ashamed in front of me. I too am vulnerable. And because of this, I am enough. Whatever his story, he no longer needs to be alone with it. This is what will allow his healing to begin. (Carl Rogers)

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Healing, Men, Humanity

  6 Copy quote

• It has been my experience that presence is a more powerful catalyst for change than analysis.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Powerful, Catalyst For Change, Coaching

  8 Copy quote

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