If you do not feel deserving of happiness, consciously or subconsciously, or if you have accepted the idea that happiness is somehow wrong or cannot last, you will not respond appropriately when happiness comes knocking at your door in the form of romantic love. No matter how much you may have waited and cried, you will not welcome love when it arrives-you will find a way to sabotage it. What a challenge to resist this temptation! What an opportunity for true spiritual growth and transformation-to defy your negative feelings and honor the gift that life offers you!
Nathaniel BrandenHow do we keep our inner fire alive? Two things, at minimum, are needed: an ability to appreciate the positives in our life โ and a commitment to action. Every day, it's important to ask and answer these questions: โWhat's good in my life?โ and โWhat needs to be done?
Nathaniel BrandenThe natural inclination of a child is to take pleasure in the use of the mind no less than of the body. The child's primary business is learning. It is also the primary entertainment. To retain that orientation into adulthood, so that consciousness is not a burden but a joy, is the mark of the successfully developed human being.
Nathaniel BrandenYour life is important. Whether you achieve what you want in life matters. Whether you are happy matters. Honor and fight for your highest potential. Self-realizatio n-the realization of the best within you-is the noblest goal of your existence.
Nathaniel BrandenTo live consciously means to seek to be aware of everything that bears on our actions, purposes, values, and goalsโto the best of our ability, whatever that ability may beโand to behave in accordance with that which we see and know.
Nathaniel BrandenFor children mastery entails struggle. This means they must be permitted to struggle. If parents inappropriately step in to "help"-out of impatience or solicitude-they sabotage important learning. Among other things, the child is unlikely to discover the advantages of perseverance and self-discipline.
Nathaniel Branden