Pema Chodron Quotes

By keeping her heart protected, she'll never ever feel rejected.

As a kid, I would push my shoulders forward in order to hide my heart from being hurt.

People choose to shut themselves off and build a load of defense mechanisms and not let anybody in because it's easier that way. You don't get hurt, and there's less risk involved if you build this hard shell.

Guard thy heart on this weak side, where most our nature fails.

If I'd kept my heart better armored, where would I be now?

So I place my heart under lock and key, to take some time to look after me. But when I turn around you're standing there.

Sometimes we are to guard our heart...protect it from invasion and keep things safe and secure. Sometimes we should give our heart... let certain qualities out and release them to others

I choose to live without hope to protect myself from disappointment. It's very effective!

It's easier to shut yourself off outside than reveal your inner thoughts.

To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.

I felt like if I wasn't sharing myself physically, I would actually get a chance to see the downfalls of my partner. I would be able to minimize my intake of being disappointed.

I'm a little bit tough because I can't afford to get my heart broken.

You don't want to let on how hurt you are because some people will see that as a sign of weakness, they might use it against you.

I've figured out over the years, you can only hurt me if I love you; if I don't know you, I really don't care.

Sometimes, yeah, I wish I would have protected my heart a little more, absolutely.

I did have an emo phase. It was sort of like armor for me.

Bluster - it fortifies me against the outside world. Take away the words, and I am lost.

Those with the softest hearts build the hardest shells.

Do not tell everyone your story. You will only end up feeling more rejected. People cannot give you what you long for in your heart. The more you expect from people's response to your experience of abandonment, the more you will feel exposed to ridicule.

Our barriers to love are rarely consciously chosen. They are our efforts to protect the places where the heart is bruised.

The best way to not get your heart broken, is pretending you don't have one.

[I'll teach you] how not to leave the windows of your heart open when it looks like rain and how everyone has a stump where something necessary was amputated.

I'm sarcastic, skeptical, and sometimes callous because I'm still afraid, deep down, of letting myself be hurt.

But I think, personally, that it would be worse to have been alone all that time. Sure, maybe I would have protected my heart from some things, but would that really have been better? To hold myself apart because I was too scared that something might no be forever?

The chances we take, knowing no better than to fall or to stand back and hold ourselves in... protecting our hearts with the tightest of grips.