Tag: author

Saturday Singer Quotes

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Hi, everybody.

That title feels dirty. Alliteration is meh anymore, isn’t it?

OK. Let us get into it! QUOTE DAY, BABY! I’ll be pulling from the book I’ve written about a few times this week. Once again, that book is titled The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer (get the title of the blog post now?).

You have to break the habit of thinking that the solution to your problems is to rearrange things outside.

That one really hits home.

You’re not even a human being. You just happen to be watching one.

Weird, right? Kinda true, kinda not. The idea of it is true, but… yeah, I think you get it. Funky. I like it.

Just as everything that happens outside in the physical world requires energy, everything that happens inside requires an expenditure of energy.

This is so very true for me. I don’t know about you. I could run a few miles, swim a bit, play some tennis, box a bit, and do it all on an empty stomach. However, if I have to battle something within me? Pfft, I’m tired after the first swing. It sounds like I need some balancing.

OK, last one. Bit longer.

…Learn to stay open no matter what happens. If you do, you get for free what everybody else is struggling for: love, enthusiasm, excitement, and energy. You simply realize that defining what you need in order to stay open actually ends up limiting you. If you make lists of how the world must be for you to open, you have limited your openness to those conditions. Better to be open no matter what.

It’s a good book. A really good book.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.

Me

Lacking Meditation

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Hi, everybody.

So as I mentioned a couple blog posts ago, I’m reading a book titled The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer. It’s been quite a ride so far and hell, I’m not even close to done with the book. It’s one of those books, well at least for me, that I need to put down after reading a chapter or two. It’s some heavy-hitting stuff, I’m telling ya. Also, he does a good job of not bullshitting you. That’s nice to read from a “self-help” type of book.

OK, I’m getting slightly off topic.

The author challenges the reader back into meditation (or for those who currently practice, he further enforces the validity of it). I’ve done a terrible job over the summer meditating. In fact, I think I’ve only done it once or twice over the past four or five months. That’s terrible. But I can change that.

As the author says, “Be the answer, and everything will change.”

That’s some powerful shit. And it’s true. When you ask “Who am I?” there’s no logical response. Singer talks about that. There is no “intellectual answer” as he states. Instead, it’s very simple and clear: “You are the answer.”

So when I talk about making changes in my life, I need to take these words to heart. Meditation is healthy for me and I’ve let it slip away. That’s not anyone’s fault but my own. I owe it to myself to get back into a meditative state from time to time–and I’ll start that tomorrow morning.

I’m excited that I am the answer. Are you excited that you are the answer, too? It’s kind of liberating.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.

Brené Brown on Love and Belonging

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Hi, everybody!

Two blog posts in less than an hour. I’m on fire, man.

I recently finished up The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown. Amazing author. Amazing female author if you’re looking to diversify your reading.

I sent quite a few quotes from this book to multiple people. Not all the same quotes went to the same people, but I felt like I should share some here. Let’s get into it. I don’t know if I’m going to be anal about the formatting here. Kind of don’t feel like making it perfect. We’ll see.

Brown is an author known for her studies on shame, vulnerability, acceptance, amongst other things. We’ll discuss love and belonging here because I believe she has some really beautiful ways to think of both of these emotions/feelings/whatever.

“If we want to fully experience love and belonging, we must believe that we are worthy of love and belonging.”

She continues, “Worthiness doesn’t have prerequisites.”

Here’s a few I found worth sharing:

  • I’ll be worthy when I lose twenty pounds
  • I’ll be worthy when I can do it all and look like I’m not even trying
  • I’ll be worthy when my parents finally approve

“What is at the heart of Wholeheartedness: Worthy now. Not if. Not when. We are worthy of love and belonging now. Right this minute. As is.”

Brown dives even deeper into belonging, “One of the biggest surprises in my research was learning that fitting in andd belonging are not the same thing. In fact, fitting in gets in the way of belonging. Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming who you need to be to be accepted. Belonging, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to change who were are; it requires us to be who we are.“

Brown points out three issues she’s willing to call truths:

  • Love and belonging will always be uncertain
  • Love belongs with belonging
  • A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all women, men, and children

And this next part is just too good not to share, “If we want to live and love with our whole hearts, and if we want to engage with the world from a place of worthiness, we have to talk about the things that in the way: Shame, Fear, Vulnerability.”

That’s what I do in this blog. That’s what I do with my support system. That’s what you should do, too. Take a few minutes to think about these words. It’ll do you some good, I promise.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.