- “Perhaps the biggest tragedy of our lives is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns…We may want to love other people without holding back, to feel authentic, to breathe in the beauty around us, to dance and sing. Yet each day we listen to inner voices that keep our life small.” ― Tara Brach
- “Pain is not wrong. Reacting to pain as wrong initiates the trance of unworthiness. The moment we believe something is wrong, our world shrinks and we lose ourselves in the effort to combat the pain.” ― Tara Brach
- “Imperfection is not our personal problem – it is a natural part of existing.” ― Tara Brach
- “The boundary to what we can accept is the boundary to our freedom.” ― Tara Brach
- “Radical Acceptance is the willingness to experience ourselves and our lives as it is.” ― Tara Brach
- “This revolutionary act of treating ourselves tenderly can begin to undo the aversive messages of a lifetime.” ― Tara Brach
- “What would it be like if I could accept life–accept this moment–exactly as it is?” ― Tara Brach
- “Awakening self-compassion is often the greatest challenge people face on the spiritual path.” ― Tara Brach
- “On this sacred path of Radical Acceptance, rather than striving for perfection, we discover how to love ourselves into wholeness.” ― Tara Brach
- “Observing desire without acting on it enlarges our freedom to choose how we live.” ― Tara Brach
- “Suffering is our call to attention, our call to investigate the truth of our beliefs.” ― Tara Brach
- “The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle.” ― Tara Brach
- “There is something wonderfully bold and liberating about saying yes to our entire imperfect and messy life.” ― Tara Brach
- “We can’t understand the nature of reality until we let go of controlling our experience.” ― Tara Brach
- “Spiritual awakening is the process of recognizing our essential goodness, our natural wisdom and compassion.” ― Tara Brach
- “Nothing is wrong-whatever is happening is just “real life.” – Tara Brach
- “Anyone that causes suffering is suffering. Our hatred and our punishing does not help. Vengeance is a lazy form of grief and fear. IT’s a false refuge.” – Tara Brach
- “When we put down ideas of what life should be like; we are free to wholeheartedly say yes to our life as it is.” – Tara Brach
- “When I accept myself just as I am, I am free from the burden of need you to accept me.” – Tara Brach
- “No matter how much we meditate or pray, we still need others to help us dismantle the walls of our isolate and remind us of our belonging.” – Tara Brach
- “Whatever we can’t embrace with love imprisons us.” – Tara Brach
- “To love someone is to learn the song in their heart and sing it to them when they have forgotten it.” – Tara Brach
- “Often the moment when we most need to pause is exactly when it feels most intolerable to do so.” – Tara Brach
- “Every flower must grow through dirt.” – Tara Brach
- “Our attitude in the face of life’s challenges determines our suffering or our freedom.” – Tara Brach
- “As happens in any addiction, the behaviors we use to keep us from pain only fuel our suffering. Not only do our escape strategies amplify the feeling that something is wrong with us, they stop us from attending to the very part of ourselves that most need our attention to heal.” – Tara Brach
- “The more deeply we feel flawed and unlovable, the more desperately we run from the clutches of the shadow. Yet by running from what we fear, we feed the inner darkness. Whenever we reject a part of our being, we are confirming to ourselves our fundamental unworthiness.” – Tara Brach
- “When someone says to us, as Thich Nhat Hanh suggests, “Darling, I care about your suffering.” a deep healing begins.” – Tara Brach
- “The very nature of our heart is to care.” – Tara Brach
- “We are all journeying through the night with plans, breathing in and out this mysterious life.” – Tara Brach
- “When we feel and release the past pain held in our body, we become increasingly free to meet our present feelings with a wakeful and kind heart. We discover, as Rumi writes, “The cure for the pain is in the pain.” – Tara Brach
- “If we accept pain without the confusion of fear, we can listen to its message and respond with clarity.” – Tara Brach
- “R
Recognize what’s going on.
A
Allow the experience to be there, just as it is.
I
Investigate with kindness
N
Natural awareness, which comes from not identifying with the experience.” – Tara Brach