sleepysera

[sleepysera]

"As interest in meditation increases, so do misunderstandings. It would be really easy to get the idea that meditation involves having no thoughts and feeling blissed-out while sitting in a very uncomfortable position. Not so. All meditation involves is substituting for your thoughts another object of attention. Whether it is your breath, an image, or a sound, when the mind becomes absorbed in something other than thought, it relaxes. From this relaxation come many wonderful things, which you will discover for yourself if you make the practice a part of your life."

-Susan Piver, Quiet Mind (2008)

#books #quote #nonfiction #spirituality #meditation

[sleepysera]

"If we are alone, for whatever reason, and if machine superintelligence is possible, then what an enormous responsibility we have. We must decide what to do with the technology, not just for the sake of humanity but to make a future for consciousness itself in this galaxy. As for the human species, the hope is that artificial intelligence, far from destroying us, will help us realize our boldest aspirations while pursuing our highest ideals. For my part, as I watch a wren through the kitchen window, clinging to a hawthorn bush, I hope we never lose sight of the things we already have that still matter, whatever the future holds."

-Murray Shanahan, The Technological Singularity (2015)

#books #quote #nonfiction #artificial intelligence #technology #science

[sleepysera]

"There are many ways of picking out information at varying speeds. Many people believe that they have to read every word in a book or article. That is only necessary if you have a specific reason for reading from cover to cover."

-Tina Konstant, Speed Reading in a Week (2002)

#books #quote #nonfiction #reading

[sleepysera]

"When the plane went down in San Francisco, I thought of my friend M. He's obsessed with plane crashes.

He memorizes the wrecked metal details, the clear cool skies cut by black scars of smoke.

Once, while driving, he told me about all the crashes: The one in blue Kentucky, in yellow Iowa.

How people go on, and how people don't.

It was almost a year before I learned that his brother was a pilot.

I can't help it, I love the way men love."

-Ada Limón, Bright Dead Things (2015)

#books #quote #poetry #poem #ada limón #love

[sleepysera]

"Who ever got the idea that we could have pleasure without pain? It's promoted rather widely in this world, and we buy it. But pain and pleasure go together; they are inseparable. They can be celebrated. They are ordinary. Birth is painful and delightful. Death is painful and delightful. Everything that ends is also the beginning of something else. Pain is not a punishment; pleasure is not a reward."

-Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart (1996)

#books #quote #nonfiction #pema chodron #buddhism #mindfulness #spirituality

[sleepysera]

"one of my greatest mistakes was believing that another person could hold together all the pieces of me"

-yung pueblo, inward (2017)

#books #quote #yung pueblo #poetry #poem #love #relationship

[sleepysera]

"Neuroscientists now know that the brain changes throughout our lifetime. The brain constantly rewires itself in response to our repeated experiences, with every sensory input, body movement, reward signal, thought, emotion, stress arousal, and association between stimulus and response. This concept is called neuroplasticity. Just like young brains, the adult brain can repair damaged regions, rezone regions that performed one task and assign them to perform a new task, grow new neurons (called neurogenesis), and grow new neural networks."

-Elizabeth A. Stanley, Widen the Window (2019)

#books #quote #nonfiction #mental health #trauma #neuroplasticity #psychology #neuroscience

[sleepysera]

"Life was hit or miss and happy-go-lucky with us. Little was ever planned, and less was executed. We ate when we were hungry, drank when we were thirsty, avoided our carnivorous enemies, took shelter in the caves at night, and for the rest just sort of played along through life. We were very curious, easily amused, and full of tricks and pranks."

-Jack London, Before Adam (1906)

#books #quote #fiction #science fiction #jack london #lit #literature

[sleepysera]

"He turned away. This sorry was too great, too burning and awful to regard. It is terrifying to see a woman's soul shining through her eyes."

-John Steinbeck, Cup of Gold (1929)

#books #quote #fiction #lit #literature #john steinbeck

[sleepysera]

"Adults can change their circumstances; children cannot. Children are powerless, and in difficult situations they are the victims of every sorrow and mischance and rage around them, for children feel all of these things but without any of the ability that adults have to change them."

-Mary Oliver, Upstream (2016)

#books #quote #mary oliver #lit #literature

[sleepysera]

"Sometimes I wonder if the depression aspect of bipolar is another way the body says no--pulling the rug out from under us so we can't carry out our manic ambitions, letting us know we've blown the limits. I do find that the more conscious I become of my emotions and physical sensations, the less extreme my depression and energy spikes become."

-Hilary Smith, Welcome to the Jungle: Facing Bipolar Without Freaking Out (2017)

#books #quote #nonfiction #mental health #bipolar disorder #depression

[sleepysera]

"Those who know do not talk. Those who talk do not know."

-Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching (600BCE)

#books #quote #china #history #lao tzu #tao te ching #poetry #poem

[sleepysera]

"Beyond the physical benefits, and even beyond the true north alignment moments, one finds something else in yoga: the opportunity to discover that space within yourself where such moments originate--actually where you and life originate. You shift from being a character in the story of life to being the playwright authoring the story creatively, consciously, freely, and totally. In an even broader sense, you become the space in which the whole story of your life occurs."

-Baron Baptiste, Perfectly Imperfect (2016)

#books #quote #nonfiction #yoga #exercise #mindfulness

[sleepysera]

"If we view tarot through a Jungarian lens, each of the cards embodies an archetype. Archetypes come from our collective unconscious, a universal symbolic language within every person. They are primal human blueprints, the lens through which we meet the world. In our everyday lives, we see representations of them in gods of every religion and fairy tales of all cultures. They are characters in stories we read and movies we watch. We find them in the narratives we tell ourselves. And in tarot, they are the many faces of the self that we carry within us who we must learn to meet without fear, shame, or hate. It is through archetypes that we create images, tell stories, and ultimately derive meaning for our lives."

-Tina Gong, Tarot (2020)

#books #quote #tarot #spirituality #nonfiction

[sleepysera]

"Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality. To me, defeat in anything is merely temporary, and its punishment is but an urge for me to exert greater effort to achieve my goal. Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing; it is a path leading to success and truth."

-Bruce Lee, Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee (2020)

#books #quote #nonfiction #philosophy #bruce lee #memoir

[sleepysera]

"Fan-shaped leaves: This tree is the only surviving species of those primitive trees, which had fan-shaped leaves. It evolved more than 200 million years ago, before most other conifers.

Maidenhair Tree: Upright, broadly conical tree. Unique leaves are borne on long, slender stalks, and turn golden yellow in fall. Yellow-green seed, present only on female trees, contains kernel. Pale gray-brown bark cracks with age. Also known as the Gingko."

-Tony Russell, What's that Tree? (2013)

#books #quote #gingko #tree #plants #botany #nature #history #science

[sleepysera]

"Whatever is overwhelming, unspeakable, unacceptable, and untransformed by us will be transmitted to the next generation. Whatever we cannot transform, we will transmit. We will transmit it to our children, our grandchildren, our spouses, our friends. We will transmit it through our energy, our words, our bodily reactions, and our thoughts. In daily life, our loved ones and those close to us observe our actions, hear our words, and they can suffer from our thoughts. In fact, they absorb all of it.

Therefore, time alone does not heal; the passage of time can bring more sadness, pain, anger, resentment, and destructive behaviors. Time can amplify trauma, and it can echo over generations in a family, in a community, and in a nation.

To face that abuse, that pain, that sadness is to transform it so that it is not passed on to the next generations. This is transgenerational liberation from trauma."

-Sister Dang Nghiem, Flowers in the Dark: Reclaiming Your Power to Heal from Trauma with Mindfulness (2021)

#books #quote #nonfiction #trauma #mental health #mindfulness